Sally Yates tweets for first time as private citizen, rips into Jeff Sessions
Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates didn’t become a nationally prominent figure until the day Donald Trump fired her, and she’s been missing from Twitter ever since. Her former @SallyQYates official government Twitter account had been labeled “inactive,” and she never did create a personal account. But now she’s retaken control of the username as a private citizen, and she’s quickly coming out swinging at her DOJ successor Jeff Sessions.
Yates has only posted one tweet so far, but she’s already gained 57,000 followers in the three hours since she came back online (a number that will have likely grown far higher by the time you’re reading this). She’s only following three people: her former boss Eric Holder, The Leadership Conference CEO Vanita Gupta, and former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. Yates and Bharara both have the distinction of having been fired by Donald Trump because they were in position to expose his criminal scandals.
Here’s her first tweet out of the gate, which has already been retweeted more than fourteen thousand times:
My first tweet as a private citizen. Read my op-ed responding to AG Sessions on the need for criminal justice reform https://t.co/143F3hagva
— Sally Yates (@SallyQYates) June 24, 2017
Her Washington Post op-ed starts off “In today’s polarized world, there aren’t many issues on which Democrats and Republicans agree. So when they do, we should seize the rare opportunity to move our country forward. One such issue is criminal-justice reform, and specifically the need for sentencing reform for drug offenses.” She then goes on to explain that while she was a prosecutor, she sought long prison sentences when it was specifically warranted, but that Jeff Sessions is taking a misguided approach with blanket harsh sentences.
It’s unclear what Sally Yates plans to do next in life, but it’s clear she’s willing to speak up about important issues. You can read the rest here). If you were previously following the inactive @SallyQYates account, you may need to follow her again – which you can do here).
