New documents obtained by government watchdog Judicial Watch show a top DOJ prosecutor, who is now working as a deputy on Special Counsel Bob Mueller's investigation, cheered the decision by former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to defy orders and refusal to enforce President Trump's first travel ban in January. Yates was the acting attorney general at the time and was promptly fired for her defiance.
Emails show Andrew Weissmann, who served as chief of the Justice Department’s Criminal Fraud Section under President Obama, loved Yates' refusal to implement the ban.
“I am so proud. And in awe. Thank you so much. All my deepest respects,” Weissmann wrote.
The New York Times has described Weissmann as "Mueller's Pitbull."
He is a top lieutenant to Robert S. Mueller III on the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible links to the Trump campaign. Significantly, Mr. Weissmann is an expert in converting defendants into collaborators — with either tactical brilliance or overzealousness, depending on one’s perspective.
“This is an astonishing and disturbing find. Andrew Weissmann, a key prosecutor on Robert Mueller’s team, praised Obama DOJ holdover Sally Yates after she lawlessly thwarted President Trump,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton released in a statement. “How much more evidence do we need that the Mueller operation has been irredeemably compromised by anti-Trump partisans? Shut it down.”
