00:00And if an attorney general disagrees with a policy decision of the president, a policy decision that is lawful,
00:07does the attorney general have the authority to direct the Department of Justice to defy the president's order?
00:13I don't know whether the attorney general has the authority to do that or not, but I don't think it
00:17would be a good idea.
00:18And that's not what I did in this case.
00:21I voted for your confirmation because I believe that you had a distinguished career.
00:26But I have to tell you that I find it enormously disappointing that you would counterman the executive order of
00:33the president of the United States
00:34because you happen to disagree with it as a policy matter.
00:36Let me make one thing clear. It was not purely as a policy matter.
00:39And in fact, I remember my confirmation hearing in an exchange that I had with you where you specifically asked
00:46me in that hearing
00:48that if the president asked me to do something that was unlawful or unconstitutional, would I say no?
00:55No. And I looked at this. I made a determination that I believed that it was unlawful.
01:00I also thought that it was inconsistent with the principles of the Department of Justice.
01:05And I said no. And that's what I promised you I would do. And that's what I did.
01:09I don't know how you can say that it was lawful and say that it was within your prerogative to
01:14refuse to defend it in a court of law
01:16and leave it for the court to decide.
01:18Senator, I did not say it was lawful. I said it was unlawful.
01:24In the over 200 years of the Department of Justice history, are you aware of any instance
01:29in which the Department of Justice has formally approved the legality of a policy
01:33and three days later the Attorney General has directed the Department not to follow that policy and to defy that
01:39policy?
01:40I'm not, but I'm also not aware of a situation where the Office of Legal Counsel was advised not to
01:45tell the Attorney General about it until after it was over.
01:50Thank you, Mr. Yates.
