January 31, 2017
HE'S SET THE STANDARD HE NEEDS TO BE HELD TO:
Watch Jeff Sessions urge the attorney general Trump just fired to resist a president's unlawful orders (The Week, 1/31/17)
Yates had been planning to leave the department a few days after the Senate confirmed Trump's nominee, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), and she reportedly knew her letter could lead to her early termination. But sometimes "the attorney general has a responsibility to say no to the president if he asks for something that's improper." That last quote is from Jeff Sessions -- whose protégés reportedly wrote Trump's executive order -- talking to Yates at her deputy attorney general Senate confirmation hearing in March 2015. "If the views a president wants to execute are unlawful, should the attorney general or deputy attorney general say no?" Sessions asked. "Senator, I believe that the attorney general or the deputy attorney general has an obligation to follow the law and the Constitution," Yates replied.
Posted by Orrin Judd at January 31, 2017 6:57 AM