Mueller Deputy Praised Yates for Refusing to Defend Travel Ban

A top prosecutor for Special Counsel Robert Mueller sent an email praising Sally Yates, the former acting attorney general fired by President Donald Trump, for refusing to defend Trump’s travel ban.

Andrew Weissmann sent the email to Yates on the night of Jan. 30 offering support for her move after she told the Justice Department not to enforce Trump’s executive order temporarily banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries.

“I am so proud,” Weissmann said in the subject line of the email released Tuesday by Judicial Watch, a conservative group that obtained it through a lawsuit. Weissmann wrote: “And in awe. Thank you so much. All my deepest respects.”