Trump Fires Acting Attorney General Sally Yates for Refusing to Defend Muslim Ban

President Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates within hours of her instructing Justice Department attorneys not to defend Executive Order 13769 (the Muslim ban). Yates had sent a letter to DOJ staff stating she was “not convinced that the defense of the Executive Order is consistent with these responsibilities” and would not authorize DOJ lawyers to present arguments defending the order.

Yates raised critical constitutional concerns that the Office of Legal Counsel’s approval failed to consider public statements from Trump and Rudy Giuliani—particularly Giuliani’s admission that Trump asked him “how to do a Muslim ban legally”—that suggested discriminatory religious intent. She emphasized the Justice Department’s obligation to “always seek justice and stand for what is right” and ensure legal positions were “informed by our best view of what the law is.”

The White House immediately fired Yates, acc using her of “betraying the Department of Justice” and being “weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration.” Trump appointed Dana Boente, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, as interim attorney general. Boente immediately pledged to defend the immigration order, demonstrating the politicization of the Justice Department.

Yates’s firing marked the first removal of a Justice Department leader for refusing to defend a presidential order since the Nixon era’s “Saturday Night Massacre,” setting a precedent for Trump’s pattern of demanding personal loyalty over institutional independence. The episode foreshadowed Trump’s systematic destruction of DOJ independence, including later firing FBI Director James Comey and attempting to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Yates was an Obama holdover serving until Jeff Sessions could be confirmed as Attorney General. Her principled stand demonstrated the conflict between legal ethics and political loyalty that would define Trump’s assault on the rule of law throughout his administration.