US
Jared And Ivanka Set Sights On Criminal Justice Reform
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Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner hosted another bipartisan groups of politicians last week to push President Donald Trump’s administration’s criminal justice agenda.
Criminal justice reform is one of the few topics where both political sides of the aisle have found agreement.
The couple hosted a dinner meeting last week that brought together staunch Republicans like Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Texas Sen. John Cornyn with Democrats like Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department (DOJ) has proved to be the largest obstacle to bipartisan reform in Congress, as Sessions is one of few major political figures who believes in toughening sentences.
“My advice was very simple, you need to solve the problem of DOJ opposition, which puts everybody who wants this done in a very difficult position,” Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat, told the AP. “And if the president wants this done, the attorney general reports to him, and he ought to be able to sort that out.”
There had been somewhat of a bipartisan consensus on softening sentences and reducing jail populations under former President Barack Obama’s administration. It was only with the appointment of Sessions that cooperation began to falter, with some Republicans reverting toward Sessions’ “tough-on-crime” policies.
Each of the lawmakers at Kushner and Trump’s meeting are pushing various bills that would end mandatory life sentences, end three-strike laws for drug offenders, and require prosecutors to establish criminal intent before convicting defendants of a federal crime.
Lee and Durbin already have a history of teaming to push justice reforms, as both introduced bills last week aimed at softening sentences.
Lee’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation in time for publication.
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