President Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates after she ordered the Department of Justice not to defend legal challenges to the administration's travel ban.
Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday directed lawyers at the Department of Justice to refrain from trying to defend President Donald Trump's controversial ban on U.S. travel for citizens of seven nations in the Middle East and Africa. Yates, a member of former President Barack Obama's government, is filling in the office as Trump nominee Jeff Sessions seeks confirmation. Photo by Kevin Dietsch
-- President Donald
Trump fired acting Attorney
General Sally Yates Monday night, hours after she said the U.S. Department of
Justice would not defend challenges to the president's travel ban on people
from seven majority Muslim countries.
Trump replaced Yates with Dana Boente, U.S. attorney for the Eastern
District of Virginia, after Yates said government lawyers won't argue the issue
because she was uncertain whether the ban is legal.
Boente will fill the position until Sen. Jeff Sessions' confirmation is voted
on by the U.S. Senate later this week. The White House said it replaced Yates
because she had "betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce
a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States."
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