Exclusive: Sources: Grassley to allow special panel for Sessions witch-hunt By: Nate Madden | January 08, 2017Sen. Jeff Sessions’ confirmation is shaping up to be a political circus act as sources indicate Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley R-Iowa, (D, 66%) is expected to announce a special panel “to examine Sen. Sessions’ history on civil rights.” But in reality, the panel will only serve as a platform for smears, rumor, and spin.
A special panel would go directly against the Iowa Republican’s previously expressed goal of avoiding the disaster confirmation hearings for President George W. Bush’s Attorney General John Ashcroft. In a statement in November, Grassley referred to Ashcroft’s confirmation hearings as a “reckless campaign that snowballed into an avalanche of innuendo, rumor and spin” and added Sessions’ confirmation hearings would not be a repeat.
Sources working with the Trump transition team and in the Senate, with direct knowledge of the situation, spoke with Conservative Review under the condition of anonymity and said that Chairman Grassley conceded to Senate Judiciary Democrat demands to allow a special panel on civil rights to cross-examine Sessions.
The announcement of the special panel could come as soon as Monday.
One source indicated that Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., (F, 22%) would be on the panel. For context, Lewis and Sessions both attended last year’s 50th Selma anniversary, but now Lewis will take part in the special panel to examine Sessions’ bona fides on civil rights.
What this panel will effectively do is give a congressional soapbox, sanctioned by the GOP Judiciary chairman, to conduct a prolonged smear campaign with the intent to paint Sessions as some sort of unrepentant neo-Confederate racist. The cardinal sins for which Democrats will try to convict him are believing that America should enforce its immigration laws, his support and assistance to President-elect Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, and — above all — being a white, evangelical conservative from the state of Alabama.
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https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2017/01/exclusive-source-grassley-to-allow-special-panel-for-sessions-witch-hunt