Sessions Responds to Allegations of Racism: ‘These Are False Charges’

SESSIONS: "In that regard, if I’m confirmed, I commit to all of you that the Department of Justice will be responsive, Mr. Chairman, to Congress and we’ll work with you on your priorities, all of you, and provide you with guidance and views where appropriate. The department will respect your constitutional duties, your oversight role, and the particularly critically important separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. Let me address another issue straight on. I was accused in 1986 of failing to protect the voting rights of African-Americans by presenting the Perry County case, the voter fraud case and of condemning civil rights advocates and organizations and even harboring sympathies for the KKK. These are false charges. The voter fraud case my office prosecuted was in response to pleas from African-American incumbent elected officials who claimed that the absentee ballot process involved a situation in which ballots cast for them were stolen, altered and cast for their opponents. The prosecution sought to protect the integrity of the ballot, not to block voting. It was a voting rights case."