Trump Fires Acting Attorney General After Row over Travel Ban

President Donald Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates Monday night after she issued a letter saying she would not be defending his executive order on travel bans and calling it unlawful, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said in a tweet.

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“The acting attorney general, Sally Yates, has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States. Ms. Yates is an Obama administration appointee who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration,” a White House statement read Monday night.

Trump named Dana Boente, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia as acting attorney general.

Meanwhile, Boente has already confirmed he will reverse Yates orders and defend the travel bans.

“I am honored to serve President Trump in this role until Senator Sessions is confirmed. I will defend and enforce the laws of our country to ensure that our people and our nation are protected,” said Dana Boente, acting attorney general.

The news came hours after Yates told Justice Department lawyers not to defend Trump's order temporarily banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, U.S. media reported Monday.

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“I am responsible for ensuring that the positions we take in court remain consistent with this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right,” Yates wrote in a letter to Justice Department lawyers according to the New York Times.

“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.”

Yates was named deputy attorney general by then-President Barack Obama in 2015 and asked to stay on as acting head of the Justice Department by Trump.

However, the move is largely symbolic as Trump’s new Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has been one of the most prominent supporters of Trump’s call for a Muslim ban, will soon be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

“He (Trump) said, ‘we should have a temporary ban on entry of people into the country from the Muslim world,’ but that’s because we have an ineffective screening process … so I think we’re moving in the right direction,” Sessions told ABC News last May.

“For as long as I am the acting attorney general, the Department of Justice will not present arguments in defense of the executive order, unless and until I become convinced that it is appropriate to do so,” Yates added.

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Her comments came as the state of Washington announced it would sue, saying Republican Trump's executive order violated the U.S. Constitution, while democrats in the U.S. congress pushed a vote in an attempt to rescind the executive order, but were blocked.

Trump's directive on Friday 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.

Thousands of people marched on airports across the country over the weekend sparking large protests against what the demonstrators called the president’s “Muslim ban.”

The Trump administration defended the travel ban and said it would be ignoring at least four different rulings by federal judges temporarily blocking the president’s order.