Overview
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is an American lawyer and former Republican politician. He represented Alabama in the U.S. Senate from 1997 until February 2017 and served as U.S. attorney general from February 2017 through November 2018. The Justice Department maintains an official historical biography. [1]
Stephen Miller and the Senate office
Sessions's Senate office employed Stephen Miller in communications and related roles beginning in 2009. David Horowitz says he recommended Miller to Sessions, whom he knew. Independent congressional reporting corroborated Miller's work for Sessions. The relationship is a concrete pre-White-House personnel pathway into immigration-policy advocacy. [2] [3]
2015 immigration policy handbook
In January 2015, Sessions circulated an Immigration Handbook for the New Republican Majority. The policy document describes restrictive immigration recommendations and is a direct contemporary record of the Senate office's stated approach. Comparing particular proposals in the handbook with later regulations or executive orders is useful, but similarities alone do not establish that Sessions or Miller personally authored every later measure. [4]
Attorney general, 2017–2018
President Donald Trump appointed Sessions U.S. attorney general in February 2017. Sessions served until November 7, 2018. His tenure included restrictive immigration enforcement priorities and a dispute with Trump after Sessions recused himself from Russia-related matters. These events belong to his 2017–2018 term, not the 2026 DOJ leadership. [1] [5]
Timeline
- Begins U.S. Senate service.
- Stephen Miller joins the Senate office.
- Office publishes immigration policy handbook.
- Serves as U.S. attorney general.
Sources & original records
Reports and source documents are attributed to their authors. Descriptions of allegations or proposed oversight are not findings of misconduct.
- U.S. Department of Justice — Jeff Sessions biography ↗Official historical record
- Roll Call — Miller's work for Sessions ↗Independent contemporary reporting
- PBS FRONTLINE — Horowitz on Miller's recommendation ↗First-person interview
- Immigration Handbook for the New Republican Majority, January 2015 ↗Contemporaneous policy record
- Miller Center — Sessions tenure and resignation ↗Historical institutional account
Evidence rule: A documented professional or ideological relationship is not proof that the parties directed each other's later decisions or violated any law.