December 29, 2016
Issue: Fighting Bigotry
Reaction to Senator Sessions’ Ties to Hate Group
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 29, 2016: Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron and Muslim Advocates Executive Director Farhana Khera, who is also a member of AFJ’s Board of Directors, raised serious concerns about Sen. Jeff Sessions, whose most recent supplement to his Senate Judiciary Questionnaire (SJQ) confirms that he delivered speeches to a hate group in recent years. The SJQ is a required part of the process to advance Sessions’ nomination for Attorney General and nominees must report all relevant activities, including speeches and affiliations with groups. Records show that Sessions initially omitted from his December 9 version of the SJQ speeches to The David Horowitz Freedom Center, which is on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of hate groups. He also received an award from the anti-Muslim group in 2014. The Horowitz Center’s website states that its goal is to combat ‘the efforts of the radical left and its Islamist allies to destroy American values.’
“Sen. Sessions’ deep ties to a hate group is deeply troubling and should be of concern to all Americans,” said Farhana Khera, President and Executive Director of Muslim Advocates. “This raises questions about his judgment and fitness to serve as U.S. Attorney General – and of course, his initial omission of these speeches from his SJQ raises even more questions. We urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to take the time to gather all the relevant information about Sen. Sessions, even if means delaying the scheduled start of confirmation hearings on January 10.”
“Sen. Sessions needs to explain not only why he initially omitted his speeches to the David Horowitz Freedom Center from his SJQ, but why he chose to associate with this hate group in the first place,” commented Nan Aron, Alliance for Justice President. “A person who is involved with an organization that promotes hostility toward Muslim Americans has absolutely no business asking to be confirmed as U.S. Attorney General, a position charged with the protection of civil rights for all Americans.”