Whistleblower Sally Yates: Trump "is attempting to dismantle the rule of law"

“If we are not careful,” Yates wrote in a New York Times op-ed, “when we wake up from the Trump presidency, our justice system may be broken beyond recognition.”

Yates was fired by Trump after she refused to execute his Muslim ban, which she believed was unconstitutional. The Trump White House also disregarded and minimized warnings from Yates about National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who she believed was vulnerable to being compromised due to his extensive Russian contacts.

Her comments in the Times are in reference to Trump’s complaints that Sessions recused himself from the ongoing investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia during the presidential campaign, rather than coverup for him and his associates.

The attempt to again interfere in the investigation — Trump fired FBI Director James Comey after he would not give in to Trump’s demands of a public exoneration — has been rebuked by members of both parties, who have stressed that Trump’s behavior is inappropriate.

“At its core, the President’s complaint is that he doesn’t have a political ally at the Justice Department to protect him from the Russia investigation,” Yates noted. “He is apparently trying to bully Mr. Sessions into resigning so that he can put someone in place who will.”

Yates also offers this stark warning: “While we risk becoming numb to the daily barrage of alarming news, we can’t lose sight of the fact that this is beyond abnormal. It’s dangerous.”

She concludes with a call to Americans to “protect our Justice Department’s ability to do its job free from interference.”

Yates’ column came on the same day Trump held a rally promoting the administration’s crime policies, where he spoke with a backdrop of law enforcement officers standing behind him. Trump encouraged those officers to break the law and brutalize police suspects, again showing his disregard for the rule of law.

Trump has shown that his only instinct is self-preservation, not holding up the rule of law or American traditions of law and justice. He is a rogue element, with the power to be extremely destructive.