Graham Guest’s online appeal has received over 1.8 million signatures
A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) solicitor who petitioned the government to cancel President Donald Trump’s state visit to the United Kingdom could face disciplinary action from his employer.
Graham Guest, who is based at the CPS’ West Yorkshire office in Leeds, launched the popular online petition earlier this month, claiming that Trump’s planned state visit “would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen.”
Continuing, the petition (screenshot below) — which has clocked up over 1.8 million signatures — states that Trump’s “well documented misogyny and vulgarity disqualifies him from being received by Her Majesty the Queen or the Prince of Wales.” Despite initial reports to the contrary, the House of Commons will debate Guest’s petition on 20 February.
Now it seems the prosecutor’s call to action could land him in hot water with his employer.
According to a report in The Times (£) this morning, the 42-year-old — who was admitted to the roll in 2003 — “could face action under staff disciplinary rules”. A spokesperson for the CPS said:
This issue will be considered in accordance with our human resources procedures and the CPS code of conduct.
The CPS code of conduct states that prosecutors “must be fair, independent and objective” and must not let “political views” influence their decisions.
The development comes just days after Trump signed an executive order which shelved the United States’ refugee programme. Banning all Syrian refugees indefinitely, the order also suspended the entry of nationals from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 120 days.
But Trump’s plan has met stiff legal resistance.
Lawyers arrived en masse at airports across the US earlier this month to help those left stranded by Trump’s ban. On Friday — with legal challenges against the order quickly piling up — federal judge James Robart (pictured) halted Trump’s plan by suspending the ban “on a nationwide basis”. And over the weekend the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals denied a formal request by the US Department of Justice to lift Robart’s ruling.
Naturally the court’s decision didn’t go down well with Trump, who quickly took to Twitter to brand the decision as “terrible” and to claim Robart has put the county in “peril”.
Because the ban was lifted by a judge, many very bad and dangerous people may be pouring into our country. A terrible decision
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2017
The judge opens up our country to potential terrorists and others that do not have our best interests at heart. Bad people are very happy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2017
Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2017
Trump and his team have until this afternoon to file further arguments before a final decision on the ban is handed down.
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