The president will soon have in place like-minded political appointees,
not inherited officials like Sally Yates who refused to allow the
Justice Department to defend his immigration orders in court. And they
will be less inclined to publicly disagree with him.
But his haste in firing an Obama administration holdover, his
spokesman's admonishment that career employees should "either get with
the program or go" and Trump's comments about issues he wants federal
prosecutors to investigate all illustrate how he moves aggressively to
ensure his directives are carried out, even at agencies like the Justice
Department that cherish their independence.
Over the decades, there has "been respect for the independence of the
Justice Department as a law enforcement agency," said Bill Baer, a
high-ranking department official during the Obama administration. "There
is reason for grave concern that the incoming president views the
Justice Department just as another political weapon to go after people
who disagree with him."
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Yates was "rightfully removed"
from "a position of leadership that is given to someone who is supposed
to execute orders that are handed down to them properly." While every
American has the right to express an opinion, he said, the attorney
general is "required to execute lawful orders."
A scheduled Senate committee vote on Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump's
nominee for the Cabinet post, was postponed Tuesday. Democrats cited the
firing as a basis for the delay and some said they had no confidence
Sessions would be able to stand up to Trump.
Monday night's firing of Yates, a career prosecutor appointed to a
political position by Democrats, underscored the growing dissent -- even
among some Trump administration officials -- over his executive order
that halted America's refugee program and suspended immigration from
seven Muslim-majority nations. Yates' refusal to defend the order was
largely symbolic since Sessions would almost certainly support it once
sworn in.
Yet the public clash between a president and his chief law enforcement
officer over the legality of a consequential policy could affect the
willingness of Sessions, or any other Cabinet appointee, to say no to
Trump.
Sessions himself, at confirmation hearings for Democratic-appointed
Justice Department officials -- including Yates -- has repeatedly
demanded that they declare their willingness to stand up to the White
House. He asked Yates at a 2015 hearing if she believed the attorney
general or his or her deputy had "the responsibility to say no to the
president if he asks for something that's improper."
Yates replied that the attorney general must follow the law and provide "independent legal advice to the president."
Sessions declared at his own confirmation hearing that he understood the importance of disagreeing with the president.
"You simply have to help the president do things that he might desire
in a lawful way and have to be able to say no, both for the country, for
the legal system and for the president, to avoid situations that are
not acceptable," he said.
That's not always easy.
During the campaign and after taking office, Trump has waded into legal
matters in ways that could call into question the Justice Department's
vaunted independence.
He said at one point he didn't think Hillary Clinton should be
investigated further for her email practices, even though such a
decision would surely be up to the FBI and Justice Department. He also
demanded an investigation into allegations of voting fraud without
presenting evidence of a problem, though federal lawyers would almost
certainly need reasonable suspicion to embark on a probe.
Justice Department officials have long asserted their independence from
the White House, and in some cases have lost their jobs or were
prepared to lose them.
Famously, as deputy attorney general under George W. Bush, current FBI
Director James Comey clashed with White House officials in the hospital
room of Attorney General John Ashcroft over the reauthorization of a
government surveillance program and later prepared his resignation. A
Nixon-era attorney general and his deputy both resigned rather than fire
an independent prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal.
There's also precedent for the Justice Department declining to enforce
laws that its leader believed unlawful, including when Attorney General
Eric Holder in 2011 said the department would stop enforcing the Defence
of Marriage Act.
Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Tuesday praised Yates' stance
as part of that tradition, saying the department's "first duty is always
to the American people."
Though Democrats applauded Yates, the Trump White House and other Republicans argued that she abdicated her responsibility.
George Terwilliger, a deputy attorney general under President George
H.W. Bush, said the honourable thing to do in a "crisis of conscience"
is to quietly resign. Disagreeing with the law, he said, is no excuse
for not enforcing it.
"It undermined the independence of the institution of the Justice
Department," Terwilliger said of Yates' announcement, "and was an
affront to the career men and women of the Justice Department who every
day have to go into court and represent the position of the United
States -- whether they agree with it or not."