<P> The department is headed by the United States Attorney General, who is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate and is a member of the Cabinet . The current Attorney General is Jeff Sessions . </P> <P> The office of the Attorney General was established by the Judiciary Act of 1789 as a part - time job for one person, but grew with the bureaucracy . At one time, the Attorney General gave legal advice to the U.S. Congress as well as the President, but in 1819 the Attorney General began advising Congress alone to ensure a manageable workload . Until March 3, 1853, the salary of the Attorney General was set by statute at less than the amount paid to other Cabinet members . Early Attorneys General supplemented their salaries by running private law practices, often arguing cases before the courts as attorneys for paying litigants . </P> <P> Following unsuccessful efforts (in 1830 and 1846) to make Attorney General a full - time job, in 1869, the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, led by Congressman William Lawrence, conducted an inquiry into the creation of a "law department" headed by the Attorney General and also composed of the various department solicitors and United States attorneys . On February 19, 1868, Lawrence introduced a bill in Congress to create the Department of Justice . President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill into law on June 22, 1870 . </P> <P> The Department of Justice officially began operations on July 1, 1870 . Just prior to the Civil War, in February 1861, the Confederate States of America established a Department of Justice . Though "(t) he second American department of justice was brought into being on July 1, 1870, fifty years of amendments were required before it reached a status comparable to that of its Confederate predecessor ." </P>

Who leads the executive branch of the u.s government