Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch called Boente "one of the Justice Department's consummate utility players" when he took the oath in the Eastern District in 2015, according to the Washington Post. "He is that most reliable middle child, the one you could always count on to be there for you," Lynch said.
She was appointed U.S. Attorney by President Obama and then elevated to be Deputy Attorney General. The Trump administration asked Yates to remain at Justice until its nominee, Sessions, could be sworn in.
In his statement on the firing, President Trump called Yates "weak on borders" and said she had "betrayed the Justice Department" and dissed her as an "Obama" AG. In fact, Yates had joined the U.S. Attorney's office in Atlanta in 2004, when President George W. Bush was in office, and subsequently led the prosecution of Eric Rudolph, ...
Dana Boente is the Acting Attorney General of the United States . But who is he? The 62-year-old was thrust into the national spotlight on Monday night when President Donald Trump fired Sally Yates, the acting attorney general and a holdover from the Obama administration.
His tenure may be short-lived; Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is scheduled to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday morning, although in light of the Yates dramatic firing that vote could well be delayed. Boente is a widely respected prosecutor, who was tapped by President Obama to become the U.S. Attorney in the fall of 2015.
In all likelihood Boente will return to being the U.S. Attorney full time once an Attorney General is appointed. Whether a new Trump attorney general might replace Boente, who like all U.S. Attorneys serves at the pleasure of the president, is unclear.
WASHINGTON — President Trump fired his acting attorney general on Monday night, removing her as the nation’s top law enforcement officer after she defiantly refused to defend his executive order closing the nation’s borders to refugees and people from predominantly Muslim countries.
After Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, received reassurances from Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, that the confirmation was on track, aides took their recommendation to Mr. Trump in the White House residence.
Nixon fired his attorney general and deputy attorney general for refusing to dismiss the special prosecutor in the Watergate case. Image.
As acting attorney general, Ms. Yates was the only person at the Justice Department authorized to sign applications for foreign surveillance warrants. Administrations of both parties have interpreted surveillance laws as requiring foreign surveillance warrants be signed only by Senate-confirmed Justice Department officials. Mr. Boente was Senate-confirmed as United States attorney and, though the situation is unprecedented, the White House said he was authorized to sign the warrants.
At 9:15 p.m., Ms. Yates received a hand-delivered letter at the Justice Department that informed her that she was fired. Signed by John DeStefano, one of Mr. Trump’s White House aides, the letter informed Ms. Yates that “the president has removed you from the office of Deputy Attorney General of the United States.”
Richard Blumenthal, Democratic senator from Connecticut, said he saluted Sally Q. Yates’s legal principle and questioned whether the next attorney general would uphold the rule of law.