You’re fired!
Trump dumps top lawyer over refusal to defend immigration order
In an extraordinary public showdown, US President Donald Trump fired acting attorney-general Sally Yates after she publicly questioned the constitutionality of his refugee and immigration ban and refused to defend it in court. The acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also been ousted in a show that Trump is prepared to sack those who refuse to carry out his orders, but the backlash continued with the White House clashing with a large group of American diplomats who disagree with the ban on citizens from seven countries. They have been told to resign if they aren’t on board.
WAsHIngTon: US President Donald Trump fired top federal government lawyer Sally Yates after she took the extraordinarily rare step of defying the White House and refused to defend new travel restrictions targeting seven Muslimmajority nations.
It was another dramatic twist in the unusually raucous roll-out of Trump’s directive that put a 120-day hold on allowing refugees into the country, an indefinite ban on refugees from Syria and a 90-day bar on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The Friday night ban prompted protests and chaos at airports on the weekend as customs officials struggled to put the order into practice, and the fallout spread to US markets on Monday, where stocks suffered their biggest drop of 2017 and companies affected by the change spoke out against it.
Yates said late on Monday that the Justice Department would not defend the order against court challenges, saying that she did not believe it would be “consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right”.
Hours later, she was fired. The White House said Yates “has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States” and portrayed her actions as political.
Trump has argued tougher vetting of immigrants is needed to protect America from terror attacks but critics complain that his order unfairly singles out Muslims and defiles America’s reputation as a welcoming place for immigrants.
Yates, an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama, was days away from being replaced by Trump’s pick, Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, who is awaiting Senate confirmation.
“Ms Yates is an Obama Administration appointee who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration,” the White House said in a statement.
The White House said that Dana Boente, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was sworn in at 9pm and would be acting US attorney-general until Sessions is approved.
Boente said in an interview with the Washington Post that he would enforce the immigration order.
There have been only a handful of instances in US history of top Justice Department officials publicly breaking with the White House.
The most famous example was in
1973, when then-Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy resigned rather than obey President Richard Nixon’s order to fire a special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal.
The incident, which became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre”, was a public relations disaster and is seen as a turning point in Nixon’s administration.
The drama at the Justice Department is another sign of how hastily Trump’s immigration order was developed and how little it was reviewed by the agencies now grappling to implement it.
The White House said key government officials were briefed before Trump signed the order on Friday, but there was little coordination or consultation, resulting in
confusion. Most State Department officials found out about it from media reports.
The White House clashed with a large group of American diplomats who are voicing dissent with the temporary travel ban, challenging them to resign if they aren’t on board.
“They should either get with the programme or they can go,” said Sean Spicer, Trump’s press secretary.
In startling language, Spicer dismissed the criticism from what he called “career bureaucrats”.
While he later said Trump appreciates the work of public servants, Spicer said they should respect the desires of the American people and the importance Trump places on protecting the country.
“If somebody has a problem with that agenda, that does call into question whether they should continue in that post or not,” he said.
Spicer’s comments came after career diplomats circulated several drafts of a memo arguing that the executive order Trump signed last week will not make the US safe, runs counter to American values and will fuel anti-American sentiment around the world.
“A policy which closes our doors to over 200 million legitimate travellers in the hopes of preventing a small number of travellers who intend to harm Americans from using the visa system to enter the United States will not achieve its aim of making our country safer,” the diplomats wrote in a so-called “dissent cable” being drafted for State Department leadership.
“This ban stands in opposition to the core American and constitutional values that we, as federal employees, took an oath to uphold,” a draft of the cable said.
An internal Department of Homeland Security document seen by Reuters showed 348 visa holders were kept from boarding US-bound flights this week, and more than 200 people came to the United States but were denied entry.
More than 735 people were pulled aside for questioning by US Customs and Border Protection officers at airports, including 394 green card holders, who are legal permanent residents of the United States, the document said. — Agencies