NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Trump ousts acting AG as outcry grows
By ALICIA CALDWELL
and CATHERINE LUCEY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Accusing her of betrayal and
insubordination, President
Donald Trump on Monday
fired Sally Yates, the acting
attorney general of the United
States and a Democratic
appointee, after she publicly
questioned the constitution-
ality of his controversial
refugee and immigration ban
and refused to defend it in
court.
The dramatic public clash
between the new president
and the nation’s top law
enforcement officer laid bare
the growing discord and
dissent surrounding Trump’s
executive order, which
temporarily halted the entire
U.S. refugee program and
banned all entries from seven
Muslim-majority nations for
90 days.
The firing came hours
after Yates directed Justice
Department attorneys not to
defend the executive order,
saying she was not convinced
it 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 immediately named
longtime federal prosecutor
Dana Boente, the U.S.
Attorney for the Eastern
District of Virginia, as
Yates’ replacement. Boente
was sworn in privately late
Monday, the White House
said.
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. He’s expected to be
confirmed Tuesday by the
Senate Judiciary Committee
and could be approved within
days by the full Senate.
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 pros-
ecutor, Archibald Cox, was
fired by the solicitor general.
Yates’s abrupt decision
reflected
the
growing
conflict over the executive
order, with administration
officials moving Monday to
distance themselves from the
policy. As protests erupted
at airports over the weekend
and confusion disrupted
travel around the globe,
even some of Trump’s top
advisers and fellow Repub-
licans made clear they were
not involved in crafting the
policy or consulted on its
implementation.
At least three top national
security officials — Defense
AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File
AP Photo/J. David Ake, File
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office at
the White House in Washington.
Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates speaks at the Jus-
tice Department in Washington.
AP Photo/John Minchillo
Demonstrators chant against President Donald Trump’s executive order temporarily banning immigrants from
seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. and suspending the nation’s refugee program Monday
outside City Hall in Cincinnati.
Veterans protest travel ban, saying it hurts interpreters
SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. combat
veterans who served in Iraq and
Afghanistan say they are outraged at
the temporary ban on immigration from
seven Muslim-majority countries that
has blocked visas for Iraqi interpreters
who risked their lives to help American
troops on the battlefield.
Thousands of veterans have signed
petitions. One soldier says he has
bought a plane ticket for his Afghan
translator in case that country is added
to the list of banned nations.
Many veterans say they feel
betrayed by the executive order signed
by President Donald Trump on Friday
that also suspends the admission of all
Secretary Jim Mattis, Home-
land Security Secretary John
Kelly and Rex Tillerson, who
is awaiting confirmation to
lead the State Department
— have told associates they
were not aware of details of
the directive until around
the time Trump signed it.
Leading intelligence officials
were also left largely in
the dark, according to U.S.
officials.
Tennessee Sen. Bob
Corker, the top Republican on
the Senate Foreign Relations
committee, said that despite
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refugees to the U.S. for 120 days and
all Syrian refugees indefinitely.
They say the fight feels personal
because they gave their word to people
who aided American troops that the
United States would protect them and
their families.
“This administration just made me
a liar in a very significant way, and
I’m not willing to accept this,” said
Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran
Michael Breen, president and CEO of
the Truman National Security Project, a
Washington-based nonprofit think tank.
The Pentagon is compiling the
names of Iraqis who have supported
U.S. and coalition personnel to help
White House assurances that
congressional leaders were
consulted, he learned about
the order in the media.
Trump’s order pauses
America’s entire refugee
exempt them from the 90-day immi-
gration ban.
The list will include those who
have tangibly demonstrated their
commitment to supporting U.S. forces,
Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon
spokesman, said. It will contain several
categories of people, such as transla-
tors, drivers and Iraqi forces who may
be training in the U.S.
California Republican Rep. Duncan
Hunter, a combat Marine veteran
who endorsed Trump’s presidential
campaign, sent the president a bipar-
tisan letter signed by other lawmakers
who served in the military, expressing
support for the exemption list.
program for four months,
indefinitely bans all those
from war-ravaged Syria and
temporarily freezes immi-
gration from Iraq, Syria,
Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia
and Yemen. Federal judges
in New York and several
other states 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, who was appointed
deputy attorney general in
2015 and was the No. 2
Justice Department official
under
Loretta
Lynch,
declared Monday she was
instructing
department
lawyers not to defend the
order in court.
“I am responsible for
ensuring that the positions
we take in court remain
consistent with this insti-
tution’s solemn obligation
to always seek justice and
stand for what is right,” Yates
wrote in a letter announcing
her position. “At present, I
am not convinced that the
defense of the Executive
Order is consistent with these
responsibilities nor am I
convinced that the Executive
Order is lawful.”
Trump said the order
had been “approved” by
Justice Department lawyers.
However, the department
has said the Office of Legal
Counsel review was limited
to whether the order was
properly drafted, but did
not address broader policy
questions.
Other parts of Trump’s
administration also voiced
dissent Monday. A large
group of American diplomats
circulated a memo voicing
their opposition to the order,
which temporarily halted the
entire U.S. refugee program
and banned all entries from
seven
Muslim-majority
nations for 90 days. White
House spokesman Sean
Spicer challenged those
opposed to the measure to
resign.
“They should either get
with the program or they can
go,” Spicer said.
The blowback under-
scored Trump’s tenuous
relationship with his own
national security advisers,
many of whom he met for
the first time during the
transition.
Mattis, who stood next
to Trump during Friday’s
signing ceremony, is said
to be particularly incensed.
A senior U.S. official said
Mattis, along with Joint
Chiefs Chairman Joseph
Dunford, was aware of the
general concept of Trump’s
order but not the details.
Tillerson has told the presi-
dent’s political advisers that
he was baffled over not being
consulted on the substance of
the order.
U.S. officials and others
with knowledge of the
Cabinet’s thinking insisted
on anonymity in order to
disclose the officials’ private
views.