Trump fires defiant justice chief

DISMISSED Acting US Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, a holdover of the Obama administration, draws the ire of President Donald Trump after she refused to defend his refugee and immigration ban in court. —AFP

WASHINGTON—In an extraordinary public showdown, President Donald Trump fired the acting US attorney general after she publicly questioned the constitutionality of his refugee and immigration ban and refused to defend it in court.

The clash on Monday night between Trump and Sally Yates, a career prosecutor and Democratic appointee, laid bare the growing discord and dissent surrounding his executive order that halted the entire US refugee program and banned all entries from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days.

The firing, in a written statement released just hours after Yates went public with her concerns, also served as a warning to other administration officials that Trump is prepared to terminate those who refuse to carry out his orders.

Yates’ refusal to defend the executive order was largely symbolic given that Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general, will almost certainly defend the policy once he’s sworn in.

Mounting conflict

Sessions is expected to be confirmed on Tuesday by the Senate judiciary committee and could be approved within days by the full Senate.

Yet the firing reflected the mounting conflict over the executive order, as administration officials distanced themselves from the policy and

even some of Trump’s top advisers made it clear they were not consulted on its implementation.

As protests erupted at airports across the globe and as legal challenges piled up in courthouses, Yates directed attorneys of the justice department not to defend the executive order.

Yates said in a memo on Monday that she was not convinced that Trump’s order was lawful or consistent with the agency’s obligation “to stand for what is right.”

Trump soon followed with a statement accusing Yates of having “betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States.”

He named Dana Boente, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, as Yates’ replacement. Boente, who was sworn in privately late Monday, rescinded Yates’ directive.

Not alone in her misgivings

The chain of events bore echoes of the Nixon-era “Saturday Night Massacre,” when the attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned rather than follow an order to fire a special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal. The special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, was fired by the solicitor general.

Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, was not alone in her misgivings.

At least three top national security officials—Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Rex Tillerson, who is awaiting confirmation to lead the Department of State—have told associates they were not aware of details of the executive order until around the time Trump signed it.

Leading intelligence officials were also left largely in the dark.

Trump’s order suspends America’s entire refugee program for four months, indefinitely bans all those from war-ravaged Syria and temporarily freezes immigration from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

At odds with dep’t mission

Federal judges in New York and several other states have issued orders that temporarily block the government from deporting people with valid visas who arrived after Trump’s travel ban took effect and found themselves in limbo.

Yates on Monday said that she had reviewed the policy and concluded that it was at odds with the justice department’s mission.

“I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right,” Yates wrote in a letter.

Even so, White House spokesperson Sean Spicer urged those opposed to the measure to resign.

“They should either get with the program or they can go,” Spicer said.

Despite his public defense of the policy, Trump has

privately acknowledged flaws in the rollout, according to a person with knowledge of his thinking.

In public, however, he has blamed the media—his frequent scapegoat—for what he believes are reports exaggerating the dissent and the number of people actually affected.

Cleanup after chaos at airports

After a chaotic weekend during which some US legal permanent residents were detained at airports, some agencies were moving swiftly to try to clean up after the White House.

Homeland Security, the agency tasked with implementing much of the refugee ban, clarified that customs and border agents should allow legal residents to enter the country.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers in Trump’s party sought to distance themselves from the wide-ranging order.

While Spicer said “appropriate committees and leadership offices” on Capitol Hill were consulted, Republican lawmakers said their offices had no hand in drafting the order and no briefings from the White House on how it would work. —AP