Sen. Kelly Ayotte: Obama Will Break the Law If He Transfers Gitmo Prisoners

President Barack Obama may have made a "misguided" campaign promise to close the Guantanamo detention center in Cuba, Sen. Kelly Ayotte said Tuesday, but if he issues an executive order to bring its prisoners to the United States, she believes he would be "violating the law."

"There has long been a prohibition from transferring these terrorist detainees to the United States of America," the New Hampshire Republican, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program.

"I worked every year I have been in the Senate to include that in the Defense Authorization [bill]."

The prohibition is also in the Military Appropriations Construction bill that is on the floor, said Ayotte, and federal law has provisions that "prevent using taxpayer dollars to modify, construct or maintain facilities" to house detainees from Gitmo.

"The individuals that are there, they are terrorist recruiters, some of them bodyguards to Osama bin Laden," she said. "These are not individuals we should transfer to the United States of America. "

And even if Obama issues an executive order to transfer the detainees, that will be unlawful, because the "current defense authorization prohibits it until the end of the year . . . the American people do not want it, and I believe he would be violating the law," she said.

Further, if Obama makes such an order, Ayotte believes states will fight back against having the inmates' transfers, and she believes members of Congress will push back.

"Here you have a situation where you have the president who is going to violate the law, the will of the Congress, and also your average American," she said.

"Keep them at Guantanamo, which is a top-rank detention facility. They are being held for their involvement in terrorism. They are being held because they have taken up arms against our country on our interests. That's very different than your average criminal."

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