President Donald Trump’s attack on acting Attorney General Sally Yates was a “new low” in presidential politics, according to John Dean, who served as White House counsel under Richard Nixon and was one of the most prominent names to come out of the Watergate scandal.
Trump fired Yates on Monday after she refused to defend his executive order restricting immigration from certain Muslim-majority nations, and released a blistering statement accusing the Obama appointee of having “betrayed” the Department of Justice.
“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,” the White House statement read. “Ms. Yates is an Obama Administration appointee who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration.”
Dean said he had never seen such a “nasty” statement from a White House. “New low,” he wrote on Twitter. The former Nixon attorney is best known for his role in the Watergate scandal. Dean pled guilty to obstructing an FBI investigation and became a key witness for prosecutors in the case, admitting to handling “hush money” payments and revealing that Nixon kept an “enemies list.”
Trump had the legal authority to fire Yates, who was criticized for political “grandstanding,” rather than offering a sound legal basis for refusing to defend the law in court. Yates had said she was “not convinced” that Trump’s executive order was lawful. Some suggested Yates should have resigned if she disagreed with the order.
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