Trump fires acting Attorney General Sally Yates

Sally Yates.
(Image credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates just hours after she told Justice Department lawyers to not make legal arguments defending Trump's executive order on refugees and immigration.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer announced on Twitter Monday night that Trump has named Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, as acting attorney general, and in a statement, the White House accused Yates of being "weak on borders" and said she "betrayed the Department of Justice."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.