Well, if i might to make sure we are not making a mistake senator coops. It is my hope that if you are confirmed and we do make progress on bipartisan criminal Justice Reform that as Attorney General you will carry out whatever legislative decisions might be made by this body. Last let me say in my six years here in addition to not working on a number of bipartisan proposals on criminal Justice Reform you have repeatedly voted against congressional attempts to prohibit torture in the military on text or the interrogation context and to defend enhanced interrogation practices. Are you clear now that our statutes prohibit torture and if the president were to rover yid that clear Legal Authority what actions would you take . On your previous question i would note the federal prison population has already dropped 10 or more percent and will drop
another 10,000 this year. What is happening now is reducing the federal population. This law only dealt with the federal prison population. And th
listening to democratic senator after democratic senator give speeches in praise of the rule of law. i am heartened by that i am encouraged by that. because for eight years it s been absent. for eight years, we ve seen a department of justice consistently disregarding the rule of law. when eric holer s department of justice allowed illegal gun transactions, illegally sold guns to mexican gun traffickers as part of fast and furious, guns that were later used to murder border patrol agent brian terry, the democratic member of this committee were silent. when eric holder was found in contempt of congress for refusing to cooperate with congress s investigation into fast and furious, once again the democratic members this committee were silent. when the irs illegally targeted united states citizens for exercising the first amendment views for exercising their roles