The relationship between Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump may be on the frosty side over the Russia probe, but Sessions is Trump's mirror image when it comes to pushing racist, anti-immigrant policies without a shred of evidence about their efficacy. The difference is, Sessions is far more focused on accomplishing his ends and he's created a so-called Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety that he is crediting for many of his policy changes at the Justice Department. But who exactly is on that task force and what supposed expertise they're employing to reach their conclusions is pretty much a total mystery, writes Mother Jones' Pema Levy.
The Justice Department has declined to disclose the task force’s membership, its meeting agendas, or its recommendations to the attorney general. The task force was slated to deliver a report to Sessions last week, but it has not been made public. Instead, the group supposedly behind some of the Trump administration’s most consequential policy moves remains an almost complete mystery.
On February 9, the day Sessions was sworn in as attorney general, Trump signed an executive order instructing Sessions to create a criminal justice task force, which he did on February 27. [...] In April, Sessions provided a few more details about the scope of the task force’s mission, in a memo stating that it would review a wide range of policies, from illegal immigration to marijuana. The memo also revealed two specific members on the task force: a career Justice Department attorney named Robyn Thiemann and a federal prosecutor from Tennessee named Steven Cook, whom Sessions had hired as assistant deputy attorney general to oversee criminal justice policy. Like most details about the task force, Thiemann and Cook’s official roles were not made clear, but subsequent reports have described them as co-chairs. The involvement of Cook, a proponent of harsh sentencing and a foe of criminal justice reform, was a signal that the group would take a hardline stance on law enforcement.
Here's a glimpse of the reforms Sessions has implemented at the direction of his mystery task force:
- Sessions sent a memo instructing US attorneys to pursue federal gun charges that carry mandatory minimum sentences whenever possible;
- he announced a policy to force local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration officials;
- he announced the department would increase its use of civil asset forfeiture, which allows police to seize private property and cash from suspects without even bringing criminal charges against them.
That last one is one of Sessions' most controversial reforms in terms of having opponents across the political spectrum.
But Sessions remained steadfast in the face of criticism, knowing that the policy was rooted in the sound recommendations of his mystery force.
“The policy and guidelines were formulated after extensive consultation with the Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety,” the Justice Department stated in a press release announcing the policy.