Former attorney general Sally Yates was fired by President Donald Trump on Jan. 31. Yates was fired after she announced the Justice Department would not defend Trump’s executive order to ban people coming into the U.S. from majority Muslim countries. “At present,” Yates said in a statement to the Justice Department, “I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful.” Trump then dismissed Yates, while the White House released a statement claiming that Yates had “betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States. It is time to get serious about protecting our country.”
Dana Boente, a prosecutor from North Virginia who has been a member of the Justice Department under both Republican and Democratic administrations since 1984, was appointed by the president to replace Yates. Boente is originally from Carlinville and attended college at Saint Louis University. In late 2015, former president Barack Obama appointed Boente to be the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which holds over 6 million people and is regularly responsible for national security cases as the Pentagon and the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency.
“I am honored to serve President Donald Trump in this role until Senator Sessions is confirmed,” Boente said in the same White House statement as acting attorney general. “I will defend and enforce the laws of our country to ensure that our people and our nation are protected.” He acted as Attorney General until Trump’s pick, Jeff Sessions was voted in by Congress. Sessions was a junior United States Senator from Alabama from 1997 to his appointment.
Carlinville Mayor Deanna Demuzio was watching the news when Yates was fired and Boente was announced as her successor. “I saw it all in real time,” Demuzio said. “It was quite a shock to me – not because Dana is incapable, he isn’t – but because he is from Carlinville. He comes from a large, wonderful family in town and returns all the time to visit. I’m on the library board with his mother, Doris. When you see someone like Dana rise to that position, you can’t help but feel a great sense of pride.”
Blackburn Psychology and Creative Writing major Katie Payne however, did not see the change in a positive light, “Trump firing Yates for disagreeing with him is terrifying and frankly shows how he’s trying to turn this country into something less of a democracy and more of a dictatorship. It’s disgusting and I have no idea how anyone can think him a worthy or competent president – or human, for that matter – at this point in time. As far as her replacement coming from Carlinville, my only comment is that it is no shock he chose someone from a place like Carlinville. Birds of a feather, right?”