Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (R-AL) could be facing a contentious confirmation hearing as popular-vote-loser Donald's Trump pick for attorney general over his abysmal civil rights record. But the case that exemplifies that issue the most—his bullshit attempt as South Carolina's Alabama’s attorney general to prosecute voting rights activists—is just one example of his horrible, terrible, politicized and personalized tenure as a prosecutor. In fact, Sessions was accused by a judge of the worst prosecutorial misconduct the judge had ever experienced. And it was in a civil trial!
The 1997 "order and opinion" by an Alabama judge accused the state attorney general's office, which had been headed by Sessions, of the worst prosecutorial misconduct he'd ever seen.
"The court finds that even having been given every benefit of the doubt, the misconduct of the Attorney General in this case far surpasses in both extensiveness and measure the totality of any prosecutorial misconduct ever previously presented to or witnessed by this court," wrote James S. Garrett, a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge.
The misconduct was "so pronounced and persistent," Garrett wrote, that "it permeates the entire atmosphere of this prosecution."
The judge dismissed the case as a result, a case that Sessions' office had touted as "being 'of the greatest magnitude' it had undertaken in the past 25 years." It was a civil case, a dispute between rival companies. Session's accused Tieco Inc., a Birmingham-based turf and industrial equipment company, of cheating both customers and suppliers. The charge was based on a tip-off from one of Tieco's competitors. Session's office apparently worked closely with that competitor, so closely that "judge wrote that he was 'somewhat curious' and 'puzzled' by similarities between language in the search warrant affidavit filed by Sessions' office in the criminal case and a subsequent civil court complaint filed against Tieco." Tieco's defense lawyer, J. Mark White, told CNN "I have never seen a case before like this where the government used its police powers to assist a civil case. […] There should be a bright line between how civil and criminal cases are handled."
The judge blasted Sessions in no uncertain terms for his "flagrant disregard of the constitutional rights of those accused."
"This court can only conclude it is dealing with either intentional and deliberate misconduct or conduct so reckless and improper as to constitute conscious disregard for the lawful duties of the Attorney General and the integrity and dignity of this court and this Judge."
Senate Democrats, take heed. Do you want this man in charge of the Justice Department?