Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, fired by President Donald Trump for refusing to enforce his travel ban, admitted she had first thought about resigning.
"I believed then and I believe now that resigning would have protected my personal integrity, but it would not have protected the integrity of the Department of Justice," Yates said, during an address at the Harvard Law School's Class Day ceremony, where she recounted the events leading up to her ouster over the travel ban.
"I agreed to stay on as acting attorney general until President Trump's Attorney General Jeff Sessions could be confirmed," she recalled. "It was supposed to be an uneventful time."
But Yates soon became embroiled in Trump's controversial travel ban order.
"Defending the constitutionality of the travel ban would require the Department of Justice to argue that the executive order had nothing to do with religion, that it was not intended to disfavor Muslims," Yates said.
"And this was despite the numerous prior statements that had been made by the president and his surrogates regarding his intent to effectuate a Muslim ban.
"I couldn't in good conscience send DOJ lawyers into court to advance an argument that the travel ban was unrelated to religion when the evidence of intent reflected that that was not the case."
She called it "an unexpected moment when the law and conscience intersected."
Yates was fired by Trump on Jan. 30, according to The New York Times.
Meanwhile, a federal appeals court has upheld a ruling blocking Trump's travel ban against six Muslim-majority nations, CNN reported. The White House said it will appeal to the Supreme Court.
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