Jeff Sessions, Head Federal Prosecutor, Remembers That Due Process Exists

Nice to see that the nation's top law enforcement officer is aware of "innocent until proven guilty."

AJ SISCO/UPI/Newscom

Attorney General Jeff Sessions says he should have reminded a group of high school students about due process after they called for Hillary Clinton's imprisonment.

Sessions was delivering a speech on Tuesday at the Turning Point USA High School Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., when the students started chanting, "Lock her up," referring to Clinton. Sessions repeated the phrase, laughed, and said, "I heard that a long time over the last campaign," before going back to his speech. "Lock her up" chants were a frequent feature of then-candidate Donald Trump's 2016 campaign rallies, as many conservatives were upset that Clinton wasn't prosecuted for using a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.

At a press conference today, Sessions was asked about his response to the students' chant. "I perhaps should have taken a moment to advise them" that "you're presumed innocent until cases are made," he replied.

AG Sessions on echoing a "lock her up!" chant earlier this week: "I perhaps should have taken a moment to advise them that … you're presumed innocent until cases are made." pic.twitter.com/f909WUIC18

— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 26, 2018

It's encouraging to see that the attorney general of the United States knows due process exists. Those accused of a crime are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, which the high schoolers chanting "lock her up" would have done well to remember. And though Sessions didn't actually join in on the chant (as some in the mainstream media seemed to imply), it wasn't a good look for him to act so amused. Due process rights should have nothing to do with politics, and as the country's top law enforcement officer, Sessions certainly shouldn't be laughing at the idea of a former political foe facing jail time without a trial.

Comments

[BestUsedCarSales]

This is a very weird thing.

[Crusty Juggler]

It's like the your dick of news.

[Hugh Akston]

You mean it's been edited multiple times?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Ever since I got the calf implants in my penis though things have been going great.

[Chipper Morning Baculum]

[golf clap]

Excellent work, Hugh.

[Crusty Juggler]

you're presumed innocent until cases are made,

How quaint! Lol

[loveconstitution1789]

You're presumed innocent until charges are stacked.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

Your presumed innocent until the hellfire missile strikes.

[Eddy]

If the issue is someone avoiding due process altogether - not even being charged - then you can legitimately ask if this is because of lack of evidence...or because the person is politically influential or her party is holding the other party hostage by threatening retaliatory prosecutions if she gets indicted.

[Hugh Akston]

Those accused of a crime are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, which the high schoolers chanting "lock her up" would have done well to remember.

I can't imagine that facts of law would be much use against anyone willing to chant that.

[Cyto]

I don't see it.

How is "lock her up" a call to skip due process?

It seems to be a clear disagreement with the assessment of the Obama Administration that it's former Secretary of State and universally presumed next President should not be prosecuted for crimes for which ample evidence was gathered, despite a lack of enthusiasm by the investigative team.

Less clear (or fully opaque) is the notion that they are advocating simply scooping people up off the street and throwing them in jail because mobs were chanting. I could be wrong in this, but I really don't think anyone is truly taking this extreme position.

[loveconstitution1789]

Sessions is a RINO and does not to set a precedent of going after Clintons for their illegal activity.

Trump made a great choice with Sessions. He got Sessions out of the Senate. He controls Sessions. Trump can fire Sessions when Mueller is done wasting time and money. Cleaning the DOJ from the top down.

[OpenBordersLiberal-tarian]

Mueller is not "wasting" anything.

Mueller Examining Trump's Tweets in Wide-Ranging Obstruction Inquiry

He's doing perhaps the most important job in the history of American government: trying to remove the Kremlin agent Putin installed in the White House. All patriotic Americans should hope he succeeds.

#TrumpRussia
#ItsMuellerTime

[Last of the Shitlords]

OBL, aren't you a fan of the Kremlin's 'camaraderie'? I'm sure you have many Soviet dreams and Marxist aspirations.

[Nardz]

Wow, Mueller has reached the Twitter point of his "investigation" - yep, super legitimate.

Btw, wasn't Mueller appointed as special investigator to look into "Russian meddling"? I understand how that could be transformed into an investigation of supposed "collusion", but how in the hell does he have any scope to now look for obstruction of justice?

[$park? The Misanthrope]

Sessions is a RINO

You know, being the super hardcore libertarian that you are, what the flying fuck do you know about RINOs?

[loveconstitution1789]

I know about LINOs too.

I know about Socialists.

I know about Communists.

I know about Anarchists.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Anyone else?

[$park? The Misanthrope]

So as usual you're just blowing smoke out your ass and hoping nobody calls you on it.

[Cyto]

I don't see how anyone could argue that Sessions is a RINO. He's a lot of things, but he's hardly far from the center of Republican ideology (such as it is).

He's a Socon drug warrior and hawk. I realize that this places him in large areas of overlap with Hillary, but that's still Team (R) bread and butter.

[Last of the Shitlords]

We need an AG that will go after all these crooked de ocrats, and their operatives. Given the a ont of low hanging fruit. There could be easily two hundred democrats indicted before Trump's first term is up. Just the crimes connected to Wasserman-Schultz alone could snag around fifty or so based on what we already know.

Amd I'm sure there are many crooked RINOs that should be dealt with too.

[Nardz]

I'm sure Mueller will get around to the Awans any day now... he just needs to finish fishing through Twitter first

[DesigNate]

"It's encouraging to see that the attorney general of the United States knows due process exists."

It's too bad he only recognizes it for the politically established and well connected.

[Flinch]

Is the notion of innocent until proven guilty being hinted at actually a confirmation of process underway, or is it just a philosophical throwaway line? I wasn't aware Sessions had done anything to approach an investigation of the Hildebeast, so I'm going with the latter. But "innocent until cases are made"? Wow. The DOJ hasn't backed away from warping into the department of injustice even one inch based on that comment. The AG skirts subscribing to "J'accuse" as a standard for guilt by the smallest of whiskers - to take him at his word means judges are just an accessory, and the DOJ is a bank of superhuman infallibility. Maybe congress can get at his impeachment after Rosenstein coughs up whatever he swallowed, but it won't be after mid terms.

[Cyto]

Wow. We need to get you some tea leaves! That's some fancy reading between the lines!

[Just Say'n]

"And though Sessions didn't actually join in on the chant"

So this whole article was kind of pointless

[Social Justice is neither]

Not pointless. Joe got to point and snark at Sessions over something he didn't actually do or say, so there is that.

I mean if we were to hold Reason to the standards they're holding Sessions to here then they wouldn't be able to comment on any of the police shootings. After all, the cops are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and any comment on such is apparently an abandonment of of due process.

[Cyto]

Better than that... Reason wouldn't be able to be on the same website as anyone who opined on the topic - unless they immediately called them to task, that rabble of high school kids being rather similar to the HnR denizens.

And heaven forbid anyone should mention woodchippers. At that point we are all guilty of genocide by virtue of being connected to the internet.

[Uncle Adolf's Gas and Grill]

Isn't it more like "innocent until the plea bargain"?

[Incomprehensible Bitching]

"you're presumed innocent until cases are made,"

TREASON!

[Cyto]

Aren't we supposed to be cheering on any protests by high school kids these days? I'm confused. Is it only when they are calling for the wholesale violation of the bill of rights that we should hang on their every word?

[NotAnotherSkippy]

Due process rights should have nothing to do with politics, and as the country's top law enforcement officer, Sessions certainly shouldn't be laughing at the idea of a former political foe facing jail time without a trial.

Gee, is that what he was doing? Good thing Joey can read minds and can dispense with due pro... oh, wait.

[Azathoth!!]

oh for the love of fuck8ing god.

it's a chant. like USA USA USA

or WE'RE HERE, WE'RE QUEER, GET USED TO IT

or NO TRUMP NO WALL NO USA AT ALL

Please, pull your fucking heads out of your asses and at least pretend to be a libertarian magazine again.

[Cyto]

Pay attention, plebes! That's how you do a rant!

On topic, and features BOTH all-caps and substituting numbers for letters, along with liberal use of profanity.

Well played!

[JohnMc]

Sessions remembers due process. So why does he not remind Meuller of that when it comes to client-attorney privilege? Oh right! He recused himself, the twit.

[Whorton]

Gawd, that boy has been a major disappointment. One certainly understands why Hank Hill's PTSD short man father was a dead ringer for Jeff.

[retiredfire]

Maybe it would behoove Mr. Sessions to tell all those jurisdictions, that seize people's property, without there being a "case made" that it was the result of criminal activity, that there should be a due process applied in those situations.
"Making a case" in a court of law, on an individual basis, should be the process that is due before anyone is deprived of their rights. Not passing a blanket law, that scoops up whole categories of people, who never get to see the inside of a courtroom, unless they try to challenge the unlimited resources of government.