Sessions, Jeff (Jefferson Beauregard Sessions 3d), 1946–, U.S. politician, b. Selma, Ala., grad. Huntingdon College, 1969, Univ. of Alabama law school, 1973. After spending time in private practice, he became assistant U.S. attorney (1975–77) and then U.S. attorney (1981–93) for the Southern District of Alabama. In 1986 he was nominated for a federal judgeship but failed to win confirmation as a result of concerns about racially insensitive remarks he reportedly made. Elected attorney general of Alabama in 1994, he won the first of his four terms in the U.S. Senate in 1996. A conservative Republican noted for his support of limitations on immigration, he was selected in 2016 by President-elect Trump to be U.S. attorney general. Although Sessions in large part successfully pursued the president's policies, he had a complicated relationship with Trump, who often vehemently and publicly criticized Sessions' and the department's handling of various investigations into possible wrongdoing involving the president and his associates, and Trump requested his resignation in Nov., 2018. In 2020 he was unsuccessful in his bid to reclaim his Senate seat.
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