Judicial Watch Wins Appeal on Release of Sally Yates' Records on Refusal to Enforce President Trump's Travel Ban

Judicial Watch announced today that the U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit ordered.

A lower court to directly review records withheld by the Justice Department about former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates related to her 2017 refusal to enforce President Donald Trump's travel ban executive order lawsuit.

1:17-cv-00832 for the time period she served as Acting Attorney General for President Trump.

In its appeal, Judicial Watch highlighted how the Justice Department was undermining the FOIA reforms passed into law Congress under the FOIA Improvements Act in 2016 that "Established a new, heightened standard of proof that agencies must meet when making discretionary withholdings of records requested under FOIA. Congress intended the FIA to shore up FOIA, not preserve a years-long, unsatisfactory status quo of 'withhold-it-because-you-want-to' exemptions and 'knee-jerk secrecy.'".

"This appeals court decision is a victory for transparency in the face of the Justice Department's casual contempt for transparency," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

"In an act of seditious and unethical conduct, Obama holdover Sally Yates sought to subvert then-President Trump by interfering with his lawful travel ban. That the Justice Department would try to cover up the details of this lawlessness is yet another scandal."

Other top DOJ officials for Yates' refusal to enforce President Trump's travel ban.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/jw-victory-yates/