Jeff Sessions was a Republican senator from Alabama for 20 years until he joined the Trump administration as its first attorney general in 2017. During his time as attorney general, he cracked down on immigrants and imposed harsher measures against people accused and convicted of crimes. He was also subjected to repeated public attacks by President Trump due to his recusal from the Trump/Russia investigation and the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, which was spurred by his lies to Congress during his confirmation hearing. Sessions finally departed from the administration the day after the 2018 midterm elections. In the past, Sessions had also served as a U.S. attorney and was nominated to the federal bench but was rejected by the Senate due to his racism.