UPDATE: A copy of Sessions’ speech has been leaked and there’s a reason why he wanted it hidden.
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The Department of Justice is refusing to release the transcript of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ speech to an anti-LGBTQ group Alliance Defending Freedom, delivered on Tuesday at its Summit on Religious Liberty.
The event was closed to the press, and attempts to get a copy of the remarks delivered by Sessions from the DOJ have been denied.
“The Department of Justice released a transcript of remarks he delivered in Dallas earlier on Tuesday and a transcript of remarks he delivered in Las Vegas on Wednesday, but a transcript of his address to the Alliance Defending Freedom has yet to be released,” ABC notes.
Alliance Defending Freedom is also refusing requests for a transcript of the speech.
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Alliance Defending Freedom is supporting Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop, the Colorado bakery at the center of a case the United States Supreme Court has decided to take up to determine if religious people have a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
It has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its anti-LGBTQ stances, and now the group has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the transcript of Sessions’ remarks.
“We’re concerned that Attorney General Jeff Sessions would make a speech behind closed doors to a group that supports criminalizing homosexuality and marginalizing LGBT people around the world,” David Dinielli, the SPLC’s deputy legal director, said in a statement.
“For this reason, we have filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the Department of Justice to make Mr. Sessions’ remarks available promptly. The American public has a right to know what he said.”