U.S. President Donald Trump fired top federal government lawyer Sally Yates on Monday Jan 30,2017 after she took the extraordinarily rare step of defying the White House and refused to defend new travel restrictions targeting seven Muslim-majority 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 practise, and the fallout spread to U.S. 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
Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, has been appointed as her replacement until Senator Jeff Sessions is confirmed by the Senate
Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, has been appointed as her replacement until Senator Jeff Sessions is confirmed by the Senate
WHO IS DANA BOENTE?
Dana Boente, who has spent 33 years in the Justice Department, is described as tough but fair by fellow attorneys.
He has never been vocal about his political views during his lengthy career and was not known as a risk taker.
Peers say he was unlikely to have accepted the job as Attorney General unless he thought Donald Trump's executive orders were legally enforceable.
Former assistant U.S. attorney Gene Rossi, now a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, said: 'I never saw Dana in the 22 years I worked with him make what I considered to a political decision. He will try his best to enforce what he thinks is the law.'
Boente was appointed during the Obama administration, first as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, then for the Eastern District of Virginia when he worked in the Fraud Unit.
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