Critics Question Top Us Prosecutor's Style After Blunt Words

WASHINGTON (AP) — With two dust-ups in a week, first with a judge in Hawaii and another with leaders of the nation's largest and most powerful police department, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sounds to some more like the conservative senator from Alabama he once was rather than the top prosecutor he is today. [...] some observers say the Republican's blunt style could strain relationships with the very law enforcement officials whose partnerships he contends are vital and risks politicizing criminal justice issues that demand the Justice Department's attention. Sessions drew the ire of Hawaii's Democratic lawmakers after saying on a radio show he was "amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific" could stop President Donald Trump's travel ban, though he later indicated the comment was meant as a joke. Two days after the radio show, the Justice Department accused New York City of being soft on crime, a statement the police commissioner called "absolutely ludicrous." The attorney general has become enmeshed in the messaging around the administration's ban on travelers from predominantly Muslim countries and has escalated Trump's threats to pull grant money from so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to share information with federal immigration authorities. Unless an attorney general says something that interferes with an open case, there's no formal code that governs how he should speak publicly, said Daniel Feldman, a John Jay law professor who was a senior member of former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's staff. "When you have the attorney general picking fights with the NYPD, it drives a wedge between the two agencies," said Matthew Miller, who led Holder's public affairs office.

 

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