--- title: Jeff Sessions Grilled Sally Yates on Defying the President description: When she was confirmed as deputy attorney general, Sally Yates assured Sen. Jeff Sessions she would be willing to stand up to the President canonical: https://time.com/4654850/jeff-sessions-sally-yates-attorney-general/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-31T14:07:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:02:41.242Z article:section: Politics og:title: Jeff Sessions Once Grilled Sally Yates About Standing Up to the President og:description: Watch the clip og:url: https://time.com/4654850/jeff-sessions-sally-yates-attorney-general/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28f9d8ee2626198b/6988b7ff8fd2ee5b0b35597f/jeff-sessions-sally-yates-confirmation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5062 og:image:height: 2847 og:image:alt: Senate Judiciary Committee Attorney General Senator Jeff Sessions og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jeff Sessions Once Grilled Sally Yates About Standing Up to the President twitter:description: Watch the clip twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28f9d8ee2626198b/6988b7ff8fd2ee5b0b35597f/jeff-sessions-sally-yates-confirmation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Attorney General Nominee Jeff Sessions Once Grilled Sally Yates About Standing Up to the President > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jan 31, 2017 2:07 PM UTC  President Donald Trump's pick for Attorney General, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 10, 2017. President Donald Trump's pick for Attorney General, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 10, 2017. Melina Mara—The Washington Post/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jan 31, 2017 2:07 PM UTC When Sally Yates was confirmed as deputy U.S. attorney general nearly two years ago, she assured [Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions](http://time.com/4630988/donald-trump-jeff-sessions-confirmation-attorney-general/) that she would be willing to stand up to the President if he took “unlawful” action. Yates, who had just recently taken over as acting attorney general, was [fired Monday night](http://time.com/4654665/president-trump-sally-yates-immigration-order/) by President Donald Trump after she [refused to defend](http://time.com/4654533/acting-attorney-general-sally-yates-immigration-ban-donald-trump/) his [order on immigration](http://time.com/4654787/trump-immigration-discrimination-lawsuits/), explaining that she was not “convinced that the executive order is lawful.” Trump admonished Yates, replaced her with a new acting attorney general and is now [eagerly awaiting the confirmation](http://time.com/4654824/donald-trump-attorney-general-sessions/) of his Attorney General nominee, who happens to be Sessions. During Yates’ confirmation hearing on March 24, 2105, Sessions grilled her on whether she would be willing to say no to the President (who at the time was Barack Obama) — “no matter how headstrong they might be.” “If the views a President wants to execute are unlawful, should the Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney General say no?” Sessions asked. “Senator, I believe that the Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney General has an obligation to follow the law and the Constitution and to give their independent legal advice to the President,” Yates said. In the wake of the Justice Department shakeup Monday, that clip from the hearing has gone viral: Here’s a transcript of their exchange: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4654850/jeff-sessions-sally-yates-attorney-general/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4654850/jeff-sessions-sally-yates-attorney-general/"},"headline":"Attorney General Nominee Jeff Sessions Once Grilled Sally Yates About Standing Up to the President","datePublished":"2017-01-31T14:07:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:02:41.242Z","description":"\"No matter how headstrong they might be, do you feel like that’s the duty of the Attorney General’s office?\"","url":"https://time.com/4654850/jeff-sessions-sally-yates-attorney-general/","keywords":["justice","Congress","White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28f9d8ee2626198b/6988b7ff8fd2ee5b0b35597f/jeff-sessions-sally-yates-confirmation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28f9d8ee2626198b/6988b7ff8fd2ee5b0b35597f/jeff-sessions-sally-yates-confirmation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Judiciary Committee Attorney General Senator Jeff Sessions","caption":"Senate Judiciary Committee Attorney General Senator Jeff Sessions","creditText":"Melina Mara—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/justice/","name":"justice"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4654850/jeff-sessions-sally-yates-attorney-general/","name":"Attorney General Nominee Jeff Sessions Once Grilled Sally Yates About Standing Up to the President"}}]}] ```