Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ disconnect with his boss, President Trump, is extending beyond their disagreement about the Russia probe to disagreeing on policy issues for which Sessions would normally speak for the administration — notably, prison reform, McClatchy Newspapers reports. The White House has embraced bipartisan legislation that would ease sentences and beef up prisoner re-entry and anti-recidivism programs. Sessions says that will just create new victims and has thrown his weight behind legislation to toughen and lengthen prison sentences. “We need Congress to fix the law so that we can keep violent career criminals off of our streets,” Sessions told law enforcement officials in Little Rock this month. “That shouldn’t be controversial.” He was referring to the Armed Career Criminal Act, which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutionally vague in 2015, and which some Senate Republicans are rewriting.
The “Restoring the Armed Career Criminal Act” would impose a mandatory 15-year sentence for people convicted of illegal firearms possession who have three previous state or federal convictions for “serious felonies” that carry prison sentences of at least 10 years. The bill would also expand the type of offenses that trigger the mandatory sentence to include certain non-violent crimes, like money laundering and high-dollar stock fraud, and some property crimes, like burglary. Sessions’ support for longer mandatory sentences puts him at odds with his boss. On Twitter, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) suggested Sessions’ hard line posture might hurt efforts to win White House support for a compromise prison and sentencing reform bill. The Justice Department opposed both the House and Senate proposals even though Trump openly backs the House measure. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said it ultimately won’t matter whether the bills have Sessions’ support or not. “Listen, (Sessions) doesn’t have a vote on this one,” Scott said.