October 16, 2026 · Dismissal reported
Katie Zacharia
Five days at the podium before Trump urged her to reconsider the job.
Follow her record →← All topics
People & institutions · September 24, 2026
The Loyalty Test.
A president can fire an official. He cannot make an investigation, an election result or a weak jobs report disappear. Across two terms, Trump’s response to unwelcome information has repeatedly put the people delivering it at risk.
Explore 34 records ↓The second term · Women leaving power
They defended Trump.
Then they were out.
On October 13, 2026, Katie Zacharia announced that the White House had asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign. By October 16, her own dismissal was being reported. In three days, the woman delivering the news of another loyalist’s departure had become the story herself.
Look beyond that extraordinary week and the list grows. Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi and Lori Chavez-DeRemer were the first three Cabinet secretaries to leave Trump’s second administration. All three were women. Tulsi Gabbard’s resignation followed in May. These were people Trump had chosen to wield power in his name. Their exits raise an uncomfortable question for anyone still doing that work: how much protection does loyalty actually buy?
March 5, 2026 · Removal announced
Kristi Noem
Lost her Cabinet seat, then received a diminished role as a special envoy.
Follow her record →
April 2, 2026 · Dismissed
Pam Bondi
An early Trump loyalist and impeachment defense lawyer, removed as attorney general.
Follow her record →
April 20, 2026 · Resigned
Lori Chavez-DeRemer
Left the Labor Department amid misconduct allegations; a later watchdog report found multiple policy violations.
Follow her record →
May 22, 2026 · Resignation announced
Tulsi Gabbard
Cited her husband’s illness. Reuters separately reported that the White House had forced her out.
Follow her record →
October 13, 2026 · Asked to resign
Kimberly Guilfoyle
Left the embassy in Greece amid allegations she disputed. Zacharia announced the White House’s request.
Follow her record →The women leave. The decisions stay.
The individual records deserve scrutiny. Bondi’s removal did not settle the questions about the handling of the Epstein files. Noem’s departure did not undo the administration’s immigration policies. And Zacharia’s brief tenure did not erase Trump’s decision to put someone with a history of conspiracy posts and false health claims behind the White House podium.
At Labor, the inspector general subsequently found multiple policy violations under Chavez-DeRemer. Guilfoyle denied the allegations surrounding her resignation; the family-business investigation follows that dispute. Gabbard publicly cited her husband’s cancer diagnosis, while Reuters, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that the White House had forced her to resign. The circumstances differed, but the result was a succession of prominent women leaving positions Trump had given them.
Who gets another chance?
Mike Waltz lost the national security adviser’s job after the Signal controversy, but Trump nominated him for the United Nations. Billy Long was removed as IRS commissioner and offered an ambassadorship in Iceland. Losing one job did not mean losing the president’s patronage. Noem received another post too, as a special envoy. It carried less power, but kept her inside the administration.
The Signal affair also exposed a difference within Trump’s team. Waltz had added a journalist to the chat; Pete Hegseth had shared the military plans. Trump backed both men in the immediate aftermath. Waltz was later moved, while Hegseth remained defense secretary. Hegseth’s dossier follows his record; Waltz’s follows his return in a diplomatic role.
Men have been dismissed outright as well, including General C. Q. Brown and consumer watchdog Rohit Chopra. The question is who gets a second chance, what it takes to lose one, and whether women face a shorter route to the exit. The concentration of women among these prominent departures makes that a question worth pressing. Trump chose the people, set the priorities and demanded their public support. Replacing them cannot wipe away his part in what happened.
Do you want to know more?
- The Independent · Zacharia’s reported dismissal and Trump’s remarks ↗
- NBC News · Guilfoyle’s resignation and response ↗
- AP · the first three Cabinet departures ↗
- Roll Call · Bondi’s dismissal ↗
- Labor Department inspector general · Chavez-DeRemer investigation ↗
- Roll Call · Gabbard’s explanation and Reuters’ report ↗
- Reuters · Noem’s diminished envoy role ↗
- TIME · Waltz, Hegseth and the Signal affair ↗
- Roll Call · Long’s removal and the Iceland post ↗
- Reuters · Chopra’s dismissal ↗
Photograph credits
- Katie Zacharia: Portrait published by Pepperdine University; photographer not identified on the announcement. Photograph source ↗
- Kristi Noem: Tia Dufour / DHS (public domain) Photograph source ↗
- Pam Bondi: US Department of Justice (public domain) Photograph source ↗
- Lori Chavez-DeRemer: Shawn T. Moore / U.S. Department of Labor (public domain) Photograph source ↗
- Tulsi Gabbard: Office of the Director of National Intelligence (public domain) Photograph source ↗
- Kimberly Guilfoyle: U.S. Embassy in Greece, official portrait, 2025 · public domain Photograph source ↗
Two terms. A record of departures.
The people.
The pressure.
The consequences.
James Comey would describe the demand in testimony to Congress: the president wanted loyalty. In the years that followed, the conflict took different forms. An attorney general stepped aside from an investigation. An Army officer answered a congressional subpoena. An election-security official contradicted claims of fraud. Each had responsibilities that extended beyond satisfying the president, and each lost his position. Their cases lead from the private conversations of Trump’s first months in office to public disputes over whether the government can investigate, oversee and report facts independently of the man who leads it.
October 24 reporting · Inside the administration
A promise of protection, reaching down the ranks.
Trump has already voiced his interest in protecting the people working for him. In his October 15 Newsmax interview, he complained about aides facing years of investigations and legal bills. Now the reported pardon discussions extend to junior employees carrying out his policies.
That promise belongs beside the record of officials who refused an instruction or challenged an order. The question of loyalty runs through both.
October 25 · New reporting
The pressure reaches the bench.
Burman’s sworn account names Karen Donoso-Stevens and Raphael Choi: both were taken off detained cases in January. He warned of growing pressure on judges to satisfy the government appearing before them.
October 28–November 3 · Pentagon leadership
The Pentagon’s chief planner is out.
Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia spent 32 years in uniform. Hegseth removed him from the Joint Staff’s top strategy and planning post on October 28 as Trump considered another round of strikes on Iran. A Joint Staff spokesman initially thanked Sylvia for his service, then withdrew that statement as insufficient to reflect the circumstances.
The Pentagon cited an investigation into alleged unauthorized disclosures. Sylvia’s predecessor also left under pressure from Hegseth. The office responsible for coordinating military strategy lost another leader days before U.S. forces struck Iran’s Qeshm Island on November 2.
Axios reported November 3 that Sylvia faces a federal leak investigation and possible court-martial over alleged disclosures to journalists.
October 26, 2026 · Court ruling
An outstanding prosecutor. An unlawful firing.
Maurene Comey’s work was not in question. The Justice Department admitted it. She had handled some of the country’s most demanding criminal cases and earned repeated praise from her supervisors. Washington fired her anyway.
The daughter of the former FBI director sued, alleging that her family ties and perceived politics had made her a target. On October 26, Judge Jesse Furman ruled the dismissal unlawful and awarded retroactive reinstatement and back pay for the period from July 16 through December 20, 2025. By then, she had moved on to another job.
Her case adds a court-tested outcome to this record of removals: a career prosecutor denied the protections Congress had put between her work and political power.
01 · A private dinner
At dinner, Trump asked Comey whether he wanted to keep his job.
James Comey thought there might be other guests. When he arrived for dinner at the White House on January 27, 2017, he found that he and the new president would be dining alone. According to Comey’s prepared testimony, Trump asked whether he wanted to remain FBI director, then told him: “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.” Comey said he offered honesty and explained the need for the FBI’s independence. He left concerned that the president was trying to turn his continued employment into a personal obligation.
In May, Trump fired him. The dismissal letter cited recommendations from Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein; Trump subsequently told NBC that he had already decided to act and had been thinking about the Russia investigation. The inquiry continued, and Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel. Comey’s removal had made the president’s relationship with federal law enforcement a larger public controversy. It also gave a memorable expression to a conflict that had surfaced elsewhere in the administration almost as soon as Trump took office.
02 · The cost of saying no
For Yates and Sessions, the job required a decision Trump rejected.
Three days after the Comey dinner, acting attorney general Sally Yates instructed Justice Department lawyers not to defend Trump’s first travel-ban order. She said she was not convinced it was lawful. The White House dismissed her that evening, accusing her of betraying the department. In its account, the official charged with deciding what position government lawyers could defend had failed a test of loyalty by refusing to defend the president’s order.
Jeff Sessions had a different history with Trump: he was an early ally who became his attorney general. Yet that support did not protect him after he recused himself from the Russia investigation on the advice of department ethics officials. Trump repeatedly attacked the decision, and Sessions was forced out after the 2018 midterms. The dispute concerned whether an ally in charge of the Justice Department would retain control of an investigation touching the president’s campaign. For Sessions, following the department’s ethics advice placed a limit on what he could do for Trump. Their relationship never recovered.
03 · After the testimony
The Senate acquitted Trump. Two days later, witnesses lost their posts.
Alexander Vindman’s role on the National Security Council put him on the telephone call between Trump and Ukraine’s president. When Congress subpoenaed him during the first impeachment inquiry, he testified about what he had heard. Trump was acquitted by the Senate in February 2020. Two days later, Vindman was removed from his White House position. His twin brother Yevgeny, who had not testified in the impeachment hearings, was removed from the council as well.
Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, was recalled the same day. He too had testified. The inquiry had depended on officials willing to describe the administration’s conduct to Congress; the Senate’s verdict left the president in office with authority over their positions. The timing of the removals put the treatment of those witnesses at the center of the aftermath. Later that year, another official would encounter the same conflict between reporting what he knew and preserving his place in the administration.
04 · A defeat he would not accept
Krebs’s agency checked the election. Trump rejected the answer.
Christopher Krebs led CISA, the federal agency responsible for helping secure election infrastructure. After the 2020 vote, the agency and its election-security partners reported no evidence that voting systems had deleted, lost or changed votes, or otherwise been compromised. Trump was claiming that the election had been stolen. The officials responsible for examining the systems had produced a finding that contradicted him.
On November 17, Trump fired Krebs while repeating unsupported fraud allegations. The dismissal changed the leadership of the agency, but supplied no evidence overturning its assessment. In December, Attorney General William Barr also departed after saying that Justice Department investigations had not found fraud on a scale that could change the result. Barr’s public resignation letter praised Trump; his later testimony described the president’s anger at his findings. Even officials with very different relationships to Trump had reached conclusions he would not accept. When he returned to office, the removals would extend across entire groups of officials entrusted with independent scrutiny.
05 · The second term
The second term began with seventeen watchdogs removed at once.
On the evening of January 24, 2025, inspectors general across major departments received immediate termination notices. Seventeen watchdogs were being removed, with the administration citing changing priorities. Their offices investigate waste, misconduct and abuse inside government. They can uncover problems an administration would prefer to keep out of public view, which is why their independence matters and why Congress had placed safeguards around their removal.
Those safeguards required advance notice to Congress and a substantive explanation specific to each case. The inspectors’ council and congressional scrutiny challenged the failure to follow those procedures. A president’s ability to replace an official and the requirements governing how he does it are distinct questions; the administration’s action brought both into dispute. The breadth of the removals also distinguished this episode from the individual clashes of the first term. Across government, offices charged with examining the administration suddenly lost their leaders. Months later, the independence of a different kind of institution came under pressure after it published figures the president disliked.
06 · An inconvenient report
The jobs report was bad. Trump blamed the person who released it.
In August 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published weak employment figures and substantial downward revisions to earlier estimates. Trump accused the agency of manipulating the numbers, offered no evidence for the allegation and fired its commissioner, Erika McEntarfer. The revisions came through the bureau’s established process for updating estimates as more information becomes available. A disappointing report had become grounds for attacking the credibility of the officials who produced it.
The figures were used far beyond the White House. Businesses, workers and policymakers relied on them to understand the economy and make decisions. Removing the commissioner could not improve the employment picture they described. It could, however, raise doubts about whether future reports would be produced free of political pressure. From Comey’s account of a private dinner to McEntarfer’s public dismissal, the recurring problem had grown beyond the careers of the officials involved. It concerned whether the public could rely on government to investigate, scrutinize and report unwelcome facts—and whether the people doing that work could keep their jobs.
The departures below give the wider record. Some followed clashes over policy or staffing; others involved officials’ own conduct. Those differences matter when judging the cases involving testimony, investigations and unwelcome findings. The dates, explanations and source documents show what happened to each person, including where the reason for a departure remains disputed.
Search · Read · Inspect the sources
Who left—and why.
41 of 41 records
Katie Zacharia
Five days at the White House podium
Her reported dismissal followed questions about her legal credentials. Trump publicly suggested she reconsider the job.
Context & sources
The Independent reported confirmation of her dismissal; Axios reported an expected departure in the coming days. Her cast dossier preserves both accounts and Trump’s remarks.
Kimberly Guilfoyle
The ambassador was asked to leave
Guilfoyle resigned as ambassador to Greece after the White House requested her departure.
Context & sources
She disputed the misconduct allegations surrounding her exit. The family-business investigation follows the claims, her response and the access questions.
Tulsi Gabbard
A family explanation and a report of pressure
Gabbard announced she would resign, citing her husband’s cancer diagnosis. Reuters reported that the White House had forced her out.
Context & sources
Her announcement set departure for June 30. The account of pressure came from a person familiar with the matter; her public explanation cited family circumstances.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer
The third Cabinet departure was another woman
Chavez-DeRemer left the Labor Department amid misconduct allegations.
Context & sources
A subsequent inspector-general report found multiple policy violations. Her dossier follows the findings, rather than treating every allegation as established.
Pam Bondi
Loyalty did not save the attorney general
Trump removed Bondi, a longtime ally who had served on his impeachment defense team.
Context & sources
Her departure followed Noem’s removal from DHS. The broader record of her time at the Justice Department remains in her cast dossier and the Epstein investigation.
Kristi Noem
Removed from DHS, then given an envoy role
Trump removed Noem from Homeland Security and appointed her special envoy for the Shield of the Americas.
Context & sources
Reuters described the new job as diminished. Her move belongs alongside other reassignments when comparing who lost influence and who remained in the administration.
Joe KentDirector, National Counterterrorism Center
Resigned while rejecting the case for the Iran war
Kent said Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States and that he could not support the decision to begin the war.
Context & sources
This was a public resignation over policy. His assertion is evidence of his own assessment, not by itself the complete intelligence record.
Erika McEntarferCommissioner of Labor Statistics
Statistics chief fired after a weak jobs report
Trump ordered McEntarfer’s removal hours after BLS published weaker employment data and large routine revisions, alleging without evidence that the figures were manipulated.
Context & sources
BLS revisions use established survey and seasonal-adjustment processes. No public evidence accompanied the accusation. The firing raised concern that an independent statistical system could be pressured to produce politically convenient numbers.
Maurene Comey
Fired without cause. The court ordered back pay.
DOJ fired Comey without notice despite her outstanding record. On October 26, 2026, Judge Jesse Furman ruled the dismissal unlawful.
Context & sources
The court ordered retroactive reinstatement and back pay from July 16 through December 20, 2025. Comey had since taken another job and no longer sought to return. Her lawsuit alleges that she was targeted because of her father, James Comey, or her perceived political views; her First Amendment claim remains pending.
Charles Q. Brown Jr.Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Top uniformed officer removed before completing his term
Trump dismissed Brown and announced a replacement less than two years into Brown’s four-year appointment.
Context & sources
The president is commander in chief and can replace the chairman. The removal formed part of a broader senior military leadership change, raising debate about civilian control, professional independence and ideological screening.
Lisa FranchettiChief of naval operations
Navy chief removed in the same leadership shake-up
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Franchetti’s removal after Trump dismissed the Joint Chiefs chairman.
Context & sources
The announcement did not allege misconduct. Critics connected the removals to the administration’s campaign against diversity policies; the official statement framed them as personnel choices.
Gwynne WilcoxNational Labor Relations Board member
Removal challenges statutory protection for independent agencies
Trump removed Wilcox despite a law allowing NLRB members to be removed only for specified cause.
Context & sources
The Supreme Court allowed the removal to remain effective while litigation continued. Its interim order was not a final merits decision and prompted a dissent defending the existing precedent.
Seventeen inspectors generalIndependent agency watchdogs
A Friday-night purge tests statutory safeguards
The administration sent immediate termination notices to inspectors general across major departments, citing changing priorities.
Context & sources
Federal law required 30 days’ notice to Congress and a substantive, case-specific rationale. The administration’s action did not follow those procedures, according to the inspectors’ council and CRS. Litigation and constitutional questions over removal power are separate from whether the notice statute was followed.
William BarrAttorney general
Departure follows contradiction of stolen-election claims
Barr left after telling the Associated Press that Justice Department investigations had not found fraud on a scale that could change the result.
Context & sources
Barr’s testimony says Trump reacted angrily. The public resignation letter praised Trump; the record includes both the formal departure and the conflict preceding it.
Christopher KrebsCISA director
Fired after defending the election’s security
Trump dismissed Krebs after CISA and election partners said there was no evidence voting systems deleted, lost or changed votes.
Context & sources
Trump’s social-media dismissal repeated unsupported fraud claims. The election statement was a coalition assessment of infrastructure security, not Bill Barr’s separate Justice Department conclusion.
Mark EsperSecretary of defense
Dismissed by tweet after the election
Trump fired Esper after months of tension, including Esper’s opposition to using active-duty troops against domestic protests.
Context & sources
The president has authority to replace the defense secretary; the timing during the post-election transition drew concern about continuity.
Geoffrey BermanUS attorney, Southern District of New York
A confused Friday-night announcement ends in presidential removal
Attorney General Barr first announced Berman was stepping down. Berman said he had not resigned; Barr then said Trump had fired him.
Context & sources
The office had investigated Trump associates. That fact raises an independence concern but does not, by itself, prove the motive for removal.
Steve LinickState Department inspector general
Watchdog removed during sensitive investigations
Trump removed Linick at Secretary Mike Pompeo’s recommendation while the office was examining matters involving Pompeo and an arms sale.
Context & sources
Pompeo denied retaliation. Congress questioned whether the legally required rationale and notice protected inspector-general independence.
Rick BrightBARDA director
Vaccine official alleges retaliation over pandemic warnings
Bright was transferred from the biomedical research authority to a narrower NIH role and filed a whistleblower complaint.
Context & sources
HHS said the move supported diagnostics work; Bright alleged it followed resistance to political pressure over unproven treatments and procurement.
Glenn FineActing Defense Department inspector general
Removed from pandemic-oversight role
Trump replaced Fine as acting Pentagon inspector general, making him ineligible to chair the new Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.
Context & sources
Fine was not removed from federal service that day; the personnel change displaced him from the acting and oversight roles.
Michael AtkinsonIntelligence community inspector general
Removed after transmitting the Ukraine whistleblower complaint
Trump told Congress he no longer had confidence in Atkinson. Atkinson said the action followed his lawful handling of a whistleblower complaint.
Context & sources
Inspectors general are executive officials but are designed to conduct independent oversight. Their removal carries different institutional stakes from White House staff turnover.
Alexander VindmanNational Security Council director
Escorted from the White House after impeachment testimony
Vindman was removed from his NSC post after complying with a congressional subpoena and testifying about Trump’s Ukraine call.
Context & sources
He remained an Army officer at the time. His twin brother Yevgeny was also removed from the NSC that day.
Gordon SondlandUS ambassador to the European Union
Removed after public impeachment testimony
Sondland said he was advised that Trump intended to recall him immediately.
Context & sources
Ambassadors serve at the president’s pleasure. The timing, two days after acquittal and the same day as Vindman’s removal, is part of the documented retaliation debate.
John BoltonNational security adviser
Trump and Bolton disputed even the manner of departure
Trump said he fired Bolton; Bolton said he had offered to resign the night before.
Context & sources
The disagreement itself illustrates why categories on this page follow the strongest documentary record while preserving competing accounts.
Dan CoatsDirector of national intelligence
Public intelligence assessments repeatedly contradicted Trump
Coats left after conflicts over Russia, North Korea and other intelligence findings.
Context & sources
Trump announced the replacement and said Coats would leave in August. The record does not claim one single disagreement caused the departure.
Kirstjen NielsenHomeland security secretary
Pushed out as Trump demanded harsher border policy
Nielsen resigned after repeated clashes with Trump over border enforcement and the legal limits of proposed measures.
Context & sources
Her department implemented family separation; departure under pressure does not erase her responsibility for that policy.
Jim MattisSecretary of defense
Resigned over Syria and alliance policy
Mattis wrote that Trump deserved a defense secretary whose views were better aligned with his own.
Context & sources
After the letter became public, Trump accelerated Mattis’s departure. This remains a resignation, not a firing.
Jeff SessionsAttorney general
Months of public attacks end in a resignation at Trump’s request
Trump repeatedly attacked Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, then requested his resignation after the midterms.
Context & sources
The recusal followed Justice Department ethics advice. The departure is central to the loyalty pattern because Trump publicly demanded personal protection from an attorney general whose office owed duties to the law.
Scott PruittEPA administrator
Ethics investigations accumulate
Pruitt resigned while facing multiple federal investigations into travel, security and use of office.
Context & sources
Trump praised his policy record while accepting the resignation.
David ShulkinVeterans affairs secretary
Removed amid travel and management controversy
Trump dismissed Shulkin following an inspector-general report and internal battles over veterans’ care.
Context & sources
Shulkin disputed parts of the watchdog report and argued that political appointees were pushing him out.
H. R. McMasterNational security adviser
Third national-security adviser named in fourteen months
Trump replaced McMaster with John Bolton after persistent differences on foreign policy and management.
Context & sources
The White House presented the timing as coordinated, but it followed months of reported friction.
Rex TillersonSecretary of state
Dismissal announced on Twitter
Trump replaced Tillerson with Mike Pompeo after repeated policy disagreements and months of speculation.
Context & sources
Tillerson learned of the decision while overseas and Trump announced it publicly before a direct conversation was completed.
Tom PriceHealth and human services secretary
Private-flight scandal ends a Cabinet tenure
Price resigned after scrutiny of expensive charter travel paid for by taxpayers.
Context & sources
The issue involved official travel and spending, rather than policy disagreement or disloyalty.
Steve BannonChief strategist
A central campaign adviser leaves the White House
Bannon departed after clashes with other advisers and public criticism of administration policy.
Context & sources
The White House called it a mutual agreement; reporting described a decision to remove him.
Reince PriebusWhite House chief of staff
Replaced after six months
Trump announced John Kelly as chief of staff after weeks of public infighting and pressure on Priebus.
Context & sources
Priebus described his departure as a resignation. Contemporary reporting described Trump replacing him, the basis for the forced-out classification here.
Anthony ScaramucciWhite House communications director
Removed on his eleventh day
Scaramucci was appointed on July 21, 2017, and removed on July 31, after John Kelly became chief of staff.
Context & sources
Trump approved the removal. Scaramucci’s exceptionally short tenure became a marker of first-year disorder.
Sean SpicerWhite House press secretary
Resigned over the appointment of Anthony Scaramucci
Spicer left after opposing Trump’s selection of Scaramucci as communications director.
Context & sources
This was a resignation over a staffing decision, not a direct firing.
James ComeyFBI director
A loyalty request, a Russia inquiry and changing explanations
Comey testified that Trump asked for loyalty and urged him to let the Flynn matter go. Trump fired him while the FBI was investigating Russian interference and links to the campaign.
Context & sources
The dismissal letter adopted recommendations from Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein. Trump then referred to “this Russia thing” while telling NBC he had already decided to fire Comey. The record therefore includes both the formal rationale and Trump’s later account.
Preet BhararaUS attorney, Southern District of New York
Dismissed after refusing a blanket resignation request
Bharara said he was fired after declining to resign with dozens of US attorneys, despite having previously been asked to remain.
Context & sources
Presidents can replace US attorneys. The reversal became an early example of personal assurances yielding to a broader purge.
Michael FlynnNational security adviser
Twenty-four days in office
Flynn resigned after misleading Vice President Pence and others about contacts with the Russian ambassador.
Context & sources
The resignation followed warnings from the acting attorney general that Flynn was vulnerable to Russian leverage. Trump later pardoned him after he had pleaded guilty, then sought to withdraw that plea.
Sally YatesActing attorney general
Fired after refusing to defend the first travel ban
Trump dismissed Yates after she directed Justice Department lawyers not to defend an executive order she concluded was not lawful.
Context & sources
The White House called the refusal a betrayal. Yates said the department had to be satisfied that the position it advanced was grounded in law and fact.