Monday Night Massacre

On January 30, 2017, U.S President Donald Trump dismissed Acting Attorney General Sally Yates (appointed by Barack Obama) and demoted and replaced Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Daniel Ragsdale. The move was labeled the "Monday Night Massacre" by a number of politicians, political commentators and news reports, while the use of the term was questioned by others. The name alludes to the 1973 Saturday Night Massacre, during the Watergate scandal, when Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus both resigned after refusing to carry out President Richard Nixon's order to dismiss special prosecutor Archibald Cox.

The firing of acting Attorney General Sally Yates, a career prosecutor appointed by President Barack Obama, followed her refusal to defend Trump's executive order banning the entry of nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries because she was not convinced the executive order was lawful. This came after several federal courts issued stays on various parts of Trump's executive order to stop them from being put into effect and many U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents did not follow the stays. Trump replaced Yates with Dana Boente, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. After taking office, Boente ordered the Justice Department to enforce the executive order.

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