Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates warned President Trump on Saturday that firing the man who now holds her old office, Rod Rosenstein, would be an “unconscionable assault on the rule of law.”
According to Yates, that would be just as great an offense as firing special counsel Robert Mueller.
“Make no mistake about what’s at stake here: firing Rosenstein would be the same unconscionable assault on the rule of law as firing Mueller. He controls scope of the Mueller investigation and what becomes public. Both D’s and R’s should reject sham excuses to fire Rosenstein,” Yates said in a pair of tweets. “2/2 And you can’t fire a prosecutor because you’re unhappy he approved a search warrant that relates to your own conduct. No one is above the law.”
Make no mistake about what’s at stake here: firing Rosenstein would be the same unconscionable assault on the rule of law as firing Mueller. He controls scope of the Mueller investigation and what becomes public. Both D’s and R’s should reject sham excuses to fire Rosenstein.1/2
— Sally Yates (@SallyQYates) April 14, 2018
2/2 And you can’t fire a prosecutor because you’re unhappy he approved a search warrant that relates to your own conduct. No one is above the law.
— Sally Yates (@SallyQYates) April 14, 2018
Yates, who was fired by Trump while serving as acting attorney general early last year after she refused to defend his initial travel ban, was commenting on reports which have indicated Trump has either talked about or made moves towards firing Mueller and Rosenstein.
Mueller is leading the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Rosenstein is overseeing that probe because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from all 2016 election-related inquiries.
Critics of the president are concerned that if Trump were to fire Rosenstein, it could be a segue to getting Mueller fired. However, some of Trump’s allies have urged him, including Steve Bannon according to one report.
Earlier this month Yates told a crowd at an event in Washington, D.C., that for her husband’s sake, she would not absolutely say never to a future run for office.
Prior to that, Yates made headlines when she blasted Trump’s criticism of the Justice Department, saying they “deserve better.”
“For 27 years, I was privileged to work with the thousands of career DOJ lawyers and FBI agents who work hard every day yo keep our country safe, our rights protected, and the rule of law intact,” Yates tweeted on Monday. “They deserve better than this.”
She was responding to Trump’s tweet accusing the Justice Department and the FBI of “slow walking” its effort to give documents to congressional investigators on possible wrongdoing by federal agents.
