Sally Yates: Justice system ‘may be broken beyond recognition’ under Trump

Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is warning that the U.S. “justice system may be broken beyond recognition” during the Trump administration.

“The president is attempting to dismantle the rule of law, destroy the time-honored independence of the Justice Department, and undermine the career men and women who are devoted to seeking justice day in and day out, regardless of which political party is in power,” Yates said in a New York Times op-ed Friday.

“If we are not careful, when we wake up from the Trump presidency, our justice system may be broken beyond recognition.”

Yates said that while the country is transfixed by President Trump’s criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, there is “something more insidious happening.”

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Trump told The New York Times in an interview last week that he would not have picked Sessions as his attorney general had he known Sessions would recuse himself from the investigations into Russian election interference. Trump called the recusal “very unfair” to himself.

“Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Trump said.

Yates said Trump is “trying to bully” Sessions into resigning so that he can replace him with someone to protect him from the Russia investigation.

It’s not the first time Yates has publicly clashed with the president. Trump fired her for refusing to defend his travel ban early in his administration.
Yates later publicly testified before Congress that she had warned the White House that then-national security adviser Michael Flynn might be compromised and may have misled officials about his contacts with Russians.

In the op-ed, she also cited Trump trying to push Sessions into reopening a closed investigation of Hillary Clinton, his discussions with to FBI Director James Comey about the Michael Flynn probe and his subsequent firing of Comey.

Yates said those were examples of Trump “destroying the fundamental independence of the Justice Department.”

“All the while, he’s ripping the blindfold off Lady Justice and attempting to turn the department into a sword to seek vengeance against his perceived enemies and a shield to protect himself and his allies,” Yates continued.

“It’s almost impossible to take all of this in. And while we risk becoming numb to the daily barrage of alarming news, we can’t lose sight of the fact that this is beyond abnormal. It’s dangerous.”

Sessions recused himself from the federal investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow in March, after it was revealed that he failed to disclose to the Senate two meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak while he was a surrogate for Trump’s campaign.

Trump has ramped up his criticism of the nation’s top law enforcement official in recent days, saying at a Tuesday press conference he was “disappointed” with him and that only “time will tell” his fate.

“I told you before: I’m very disappointed in my attorney general,” Trump said when asked if he will fire Sessions or ask him to resign. “But we will see what happens. Time will tell, time will tell.”

Trump took to Twitter Tuesday morning to accuse Sessions of taking “a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes.” He also hit Sessions on Monday, asking why his “beleaguered A.G.” isn’t “looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations.”

Yates said “we all have a responsibility” to protect our Justice Department’s ability to do its job “free from interference.”

“The very foundation of our justice system — the rule of law — depends on it.”