You’re fired: Trump
Attorney General gone within hours of sending staff memo on immigration order
The White House made one thing clear yesterday: Dissent will not be tolerated within the Trump Adminis- tration.
President Donald Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates yesterday within hours of Yates ordering Justice Department lawyers not to defend his immigration order, temporarily banning entry into the United States for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees from around the world.
In a news release, the White House said Yates had “betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States”. Trump named in her place Dana Boente, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Boente said he would enforce the President’s directive until he is replaced by Trump’s attorney general nominee, Senator Jeff Sessions.
“Yes, I will,” he said in a brief phone interview with the Washington Post. “I was enforcing it this afternoon. Our career department employees were defending the action in court, and I expect that’s what they’ll do tomorrow, appropriately and properly.”
Later yesterday, he formally rescinded Yates’ order and instructed Justice Department employees “to do our sworn duty and to defend the lawful orders of our President”.
The move came just hours after Yates ordered the Justice Department not to defend Trump’s immigration order, declaring in a memo that she was not convinced the order was lawful. Yates wrote that, as the leader of the Justice Department, she must ensure that the department’s position is “legally defensible” and “consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right”.
“At present, I am not convinced that the defence of the Executive Order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the Executive Order is lawful,” Yates wrote.
She added that “for as long as I am the Acting Attorney General, the Department of Justice will not present arguments in defence of the Executive Order, unless and until I become convinced that it is appropriate to do so”.
The stunning events marked the latest sign of turmoil over Trump’s announcement on Sunday that he would shut the US borders to refugees and those entering the country from seven Muslim-majority countries.
More than 100 State Department diplomats have signed a memo objecting to Trump’s order, arguing that it will not deter attacks on US soil. The document, which says Trump’s ban will generate ill will toward US citizens, is destined for what’s known as the department’s Dissent Channel, which was set up during the Vietnam War as a way for diplomats to signal to senior leadership their disagreement on foreign policy decisions.
Yates was a holdover from the Obama Administration, but her move still represented notable disagreement from someone who would be on the front lines of implementing it.
A Justice Department official said that hours after Yates released her memo refusing to defend the President’s executive order, she was delivered a one-line letter from the head of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel saying that she had been removed. The White House then announced her firing with a statement criticising her as “an Obama Administration appointee who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration”. “It is time to get serious about protecting our country,” the statement said. “Calling for tougher vetting for individuals travelling from seven dangerous places is not extreme. It is reasonable and necessary to protect our country.”
Sessions, Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department permanently, is awaiting Senate confirmation, although it could come as early as this week. The Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to consider his nomination today, and the entire Senate must wait one day before voting.
A spokeswoman for Sessions declined to comment.
Boente said he would serve until Sessions is confirmed, which he understood from news reports might happen by week’s end. He declined to say when or by whom he was approached to take over as acting Attorney General, and he also declined to discuss the specifics of Yates’s memo.
Boente is a longtime federal prosecutor who has a remarkably low-key demeanour, although he has supervised high-profile investigations and prosecutions. Assistant US attorneys from his office were involved in the probe of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, and they won the criminal convictions — which were later vacated — against former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell. Boente also led the prosecutions of former US Representative William Jefferson and former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.
Yates’s refusal to defend to Trump’s immigration order — and her