Blumenthal Urges Sessions to Respect Longstanding Precedent and Recuse Himself from Voting on His Own Nomination

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote to U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) today to urge him to recuse himself from voting on his own confirmation. In a letter to President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as the Attorney General, Blumenthal also called on him to recuse himself from voting on the confirmation of his potential Cabinet colleagues.

“If confirmed as Attorney General, you will serve as the nation’s most powerful law enforcement official, responsible for administering the law impartially and fairly, faithful to the Constitution above partisan or personal interest,” Blumenthal wrote. “Public confidence and trust in the administration of justice is indispensable. Your decisions will be held to the highest standard and should be unclouded by personal bias or conflict of interest – and that approach starts with the Senate confirmation process.”

Only six sitting senators have been nominated and confirmed as department heads – including Attorney General – since 1960. None of them cast a recorded vote on their own nomination. 

The full text of today’s letter is available here and copied below.

Dear Senator Sessions,

I write concerning your nomination as United States Attorney General and the longstanding precedent that Senators nominated to Cabinet positions recuse themselves from voting on their own confirmations. All six sitting Senators, both Democratic and Republican, to be nominated and confirmed to cabinet level positions since 1960 have declined to cast a recorded vote on their own nominations. 

If confirmed as Attorney General, you will serve as the nation’s most powerful law enforcement official, responsible for administering the law impartially and fairly, faithful to the Constitution above partisan or personal interest. Public confidence and trust in the administration of justice is indispensable. Your decisions will be held to the highest standard and should be unclouded by personal bias or conflict of interest – and that approach starts with the Senate confirmation process.

If the Senate votes on the confirmations of your potential Cabinet colleagues while your nomination is pending, I urge to recuse yourself from these votes as well. Such recusal is essential to avoid any appearance of bias and impropriety. Judges routinely recuse themselves from any matters where they may be seen as having a personal interest. So too you should allow your colleagues to evaluate all Cabinet-level nominees without your participation. Notably, the Code of Conduct for United States Judges encourages judges to recuse themselves from matters where even the appearance of a conflict of interest arises. This practice is critical to public confidence and trust.

I respectfully urge you to send a strong signal that your work as Attorney General, if you are confirmed, will be conducted with necessary impartiality and fairness by voluntarily recusing yourself from voting on your own nomination, and the nominations of your potential future Cabinet colleagues, when these votes come before the Senate.

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