We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM: TRUMP WANTED TO LEAD, NOW IT’S TIME TO DO IT

Now that the Senate has resumed sessions after a shorter-than-normal August break, criminal justice reform advocates are escalating pressure on Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). They want him to schedule a vote on the revised FIRST STEP Act bill, which will include mandatory minimum relief, a bill backed by President Donald Trump.

But there are worrisome signs that a long-running GOP rift on the issue has not healed. Politico reports that interviews with a dozen GOP senators show that the future of FIRST STEP, either amended or in its original form, remains precarious. That’s because the handful of Republicans who have long protested reducing mandatory-minimum sentences leave McConnell without any incentive to call up legislation that would split his conference.

One of the critics of adding sentencing reform to the House-passed FIRST STEP Act, Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) predicted last week that McConnell would not bring the bill to the floor any time soon. “I’m not sure that we can put together a deal,” Kennedy said in an interview. “I’m not sure we should.” 

White House officials and FIRST STEP supporters have been talking with Republican holdouts to convince them to back the compromise, which adds four sentencing reform provisions to the House bill. Trump senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner “will be making the rounds on the Hill,” according to a veteran Kentucky Republican strategist who now leads the nonprofit Justice Action Network. “And once we have the requisite number of Republican votes, I think his father-in-law is going to lean in hard.”

A lot of involvement from the President will be required for the GOP to unify over reducing mandatory minimum sentences as part of a prisons package. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has 15 Republican cosponsors on the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, which contains mandatory minimum reductions, but Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III opposes SRCA, and is even against FIRST STEP. Another conservative who is vocal in opposing either bill, let alone a blend of them, is Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas). Cotton wrote an op-ed piece last week that was breathtaking in its falsehoods and shibboleths, calling FIRST STEP a “jailbreak” sentencing bill that would flood the streets with stone-killer ex-cons. Cotton’s opinion piece was roundly condemned, but McConnell is hypersensitive to any dissention in the Republican caucus. There is little doubt that Cotton’s intemperate complaints concern McConnell a lot.

Besides Cotton, other reliable allies of the White House, including Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), are opposing the administration’s approach, which would combine FIRST STEP with changes to some of SRCA’s sentencing and mandatory minimums. The proposal nevertheless has wide, bipartisan support in the Senate.

Supporters say completing the bill would give the administration a needed win heading into November’s midterm elections. Opponents say it would make Trump look soft on crime.

A senior White House official said the Administration has 30 to 32 locked down “yes” votes among Republican senators. He offered hope that the number of Republican supporters could eventually grow as many as 40 to 46.

Trump and McConnell, once implacable foes, have forged something of a partnership these days. That arrangement will be tested in the coming days.

The Hill, Sentencing reform heats up, pitting Trump against reliable allies (Aug. 17, 2018)

CBS News, Trump, McConnell forge partnership as mid-terms approach (Aug. 17, 2018)

Politico, Criminal justice deal faces steep Senate hurdles despite Trump’s push (Aug. 17, 2018)

– Thomas L. Root