Attorney General Jeff Sessions stood before a room filled with some of his harshest critics Thursday morning and vowed to "aggressively" investigate and prosecute hate crimes—particularly those against gay and transgender people.In the nearly five months since Sessions was sworn in, the DOJ has filed charges under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act three times. His predecessor, Loretta Lynch, filed charges under the same statute four times during her first six months on the job. (Sessions inherited four other hate crime cases from the Obama administration and has overseen sentencing in three of them.)
Most experts and civil rights advocates say it's still premature to assess Sessions' record on hate crimes, but many of those in the room Thursday at the DOJ's hate crimes summit in Washington, DC had made no secret of their disapproval in November when then President-elect Donald Trump said that he would nominate Sessions for attorney general.Continue reading on VICE News.