Franken catches Sessions lying about his civil rights record
Of course Sessions wants lipstick on a pig.
“Now you originally said that you personally handled three of these cases, but these lawyers say that you had no substantive involvement,” Franken told his colleague, before asking if they were distorting his record.
“ Yes,” Sessions responded, noting that Gerry Hebert, one of those lawyers, had previously praised him for supporting the civil rights prosecutions and for providing office space. “I signed the complaints that he brought; and as you know, may know, Senator Franken, when a lawyer signs a complaint, he’s required to affirm that he believes in that complaint, and supports that complaint, and supports that legal action, which I did. We sued.”
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Sessions then observed that he did not know one of the attorneys, Joe D. Rich. Rich, now with the Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights, said in an interview that this was precisely the problem with Sessions’ claims.
“I didn’t meet him and there was no time at all that he had any input on the case when I was working on it. Without knowing for sure, I can bet almost assuredly that he did not work on the case, because US attorneys did not work on civil rights cases, especially school desegregation cases,” Rich told ThinkProgress.
Rich noted that that Sessions had later filed an addendum to his questionnaire, saying that “like most U.S. Attorneys in the nation with non-criminal civil rights cases,” his role was to “provide support for the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, attorneys,” and that he “reviewed, supported and co-signed complaints, motions, and other pleadings and briefs that were filed during my tenure as U.S. Attorney. I provided assistance and guidance to the Civil Rights Division attorneys, had an open-door policy with them, and cooperated with them on these cases.”
“Now that’s closer to the truth,” Rich said. “But also not truth. He never provided any advice or guidance to me. His name wasn’t even on the brief that I filed in 1985, the brief that was related to the decision he was claiming credit for in 1986.”
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