Ed Markey: “I have heard from literally thousands of my constituents who have contacted my office in unprecedented numbers with…”

“I have heard from literally thousands of my constituents who have contacted my office in unprecedented numbers with fears about a Justice Department headed by Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General of the United States. My constituents and Americans all across the country are concerned about the independence and integrity of the Justice Department under President Donald Trump. We are only 3 weeks into the Trump administration, and what we have seen so far has been alarming. We have 3 years and 49 weeks left to go in President Trump's term of office, and we have already seen in 3 weeks President Trump issue an illegal and immoral ban on Muslim refugees. We then saw President Trump fire Acting Attorney General Sally Yates from her job overseeing the Department of Justice--an action reminiscent of Watergate's infamous ``Saturday Night Massacre''--because she refused to defend in court his unconstitutional and un-American Executive order. Sally Yates's job and the job of the entire Justice Department is to uphold the rule of law. The Attorney General of the United States is the lawyer for the people of the United States--not Donald Trump's personal lawyer. It is called the rule of law, not the rule of Trump, but it is the rule of law that is at stake when the nomination of Senator Sessions is in question to run the Department of Justice. I have told my constituents that Senator Sessions must be judged based on the totality of his record: as a U.S.…”