Later that month, Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez removed Coates from his post and transferred him to the U.S. attorney's office in South Carolina.[1] Perez subsequently disallowed Coates from testifying before the Civil Rights Commission, stating this was because his post in South Carolina caused him to not be "the appropriate witness to testify regarding current [Civil Rights] Division policies." His dismissal led the Washington Times to accuse Perez of transferring Coates specifically in order to remove him from the commission's subpoena jurisdiction.[32] In October 2010, Michael Yaki, one of the two Democratic commissioners, walked out of a meeting in protest. In doing so, Yaki deprived the panel of a quorum and delayed a vote on a draft report, which Yaki claimed, was unfairly biased against the Obama administration.