Attorney General lambasts U.S. Senate bill to reform sentencing

By Sarah N. Lynch
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivers remarks in an address before the National Sheriffs Association Winter Conference in Washington, U.S., February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a stark warning on Wednesday to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, urging it not to approve a draft criminal sentencing reform bill that Sessions claimed would reduce sentences for "a highly dangerous cohort of criminals." In a letter seen by Reuters, Sessions told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman and fellow Republican Charles Grassley that he feared passage of the legislation would be "a grave error." Grassley's committee is slated to make edits to the draft bill at a hearing on Thursday, before it can be sent to the full Senate for a possible vote. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Andrew Hay)