President Trump’s nominee for the Justice Department’s No 2. position pledged Wednesday to fully implement the First Step Act.
Jeffrey Rosen, who is nominated to replace Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, told lawmakers the First Step Act is “important.”
“I’ll go one step further and say it’s the law,” Mr. Rosen said during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“We are the agency charged with the implementation of the law. We should do what the law says,” he later added.
Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, grilled Mr. Rosen on the enforcement of the First Step Act, saying some members of the Justice Department don’t like the law and are not implementing it
“You are saying there are people at the Justice Department who don’t care,” Mr. Rosen responded. “I am not one of those. I think this is an important law and I think it is an important opportunity for the department to make a statement about the fact there is something that has bipartisan support.”
“I am not someone who has any interest in undermining or impeding or half-heartedly going about this,” Mr. Rosen continued. “I would like to see it done right.”
Signed into law last year, the First Step Act reversed decades of long mandatory sentencing and other penalties that were linked to the disparate treatment of minorities in the justice system. The bill received overwhelming bipartisan support and was hailed as a legislative win for President Trump.
The Justice Department said earlier this week, some components of the legislation resulted in 826 sentence reductions and 643 early releases.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.