DOJ VS. TRANS SLAY
Surprise by AG Jeff
The Justice Department, at the urging of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, sent a federal hate-crimes lawyer to help prosecute a man charged in the murder of a transgender high-school student in Iowa, according to court documents.
It’s an unusual move for Sessions, a conservative who earlier this month began rolling back anti-discrimination protections for the LGBT community.
The decision to send the lawyer was initiated by Sessions, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing officials.
The DOJ usually assigns lawyers to help local prosecutors only when they can provide expertise in certain areas, the report said.
The case involves Kedarie Johnson, a 16-year-old student in Burlington, Iowa, who was fatally shot in March 2016.
Johnson (inset) was gay, identified as both male and female, and was known as Kandicee, according to local media reports.
“This is just one example of the attorney general’s commitment to enforcing the laws enacted by Congress and to protecting the civil rights of all individuals,” DOJ spokesman Devin O’Malley said.
The federal attorney, Christopher Perras, will assist in the case against 22year-old Jorge SandersGalvez, according to court documents.
Sessions has taken heat for a directive issued Oct. 6, which allows religious objections to override claims of discrimination by people in the LGBT community.
“Except in the narrowest of circumstances, no one should be forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with the law,” the attorney general wrote.
“To the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law, religious observance and practice should be reasonably accommodated in all government action, including employment, contracting and programming.”
But that seemed to be at odds with comments by Sessions in June, when he vowed to prosecute hate crimes “aggressively and appropriately” and singled out violence against transgender victims.
“We have and will continue to enforce hate-crime laws aggressively and appropriately where transgendered individuals are victims,” Sessions said.