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DOJ ethics report clears Bush administration 'torture memo' lawyers

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Former US Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee have been cleared of allegations of wrongdoing in relation to their controversial memos asserting the legality of enhanced interrogation techniques, it was reported Friday. The results of the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) investigation of the two former OLC lawyers have yet to be officially released, but the probe is reported to have concluded that the lawyers exercised poor judgment in crafting the 2002 memos, a finding that does not qualify as professional misconduct. Originally, the OPR investigation had concluded that Yoo and Bybee had violated their professional obligations in crafting the memos, but this finding was softened by the reviewer. The implications of the original findings would have been far reaching, and could have led to significant sanctions against the former officials. Yoo, now a professor at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, could have faced disbarment. Bybee, now a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, could have faced impeachment proceedings. A report prepared in the final months of the Bush administration came to similar conclusions, but was returned to the OPR for further investigation by then Attorney General Michael Mukasey. The five-year statute of limitations on Yoo's alleged misconduct lapsed shortly after. In June, a judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that a private lawsuit against Yoo could proceed. Judge Jeffrey White refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by convicted terrorist Jose Padilla that claims Yoo's legal opinions endorsing enhanced interrogation techniques led to Padilla's torture. Yoo has appealed the decision. The ruling was the first time a judge has allowed a lawsuit to proceed against a government lawyer for his opinion in the interrogation memos. The Department of Justice in April released four of the memos from the OLC outlining controversial CIA interrogation techniques and their legal rationale in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union during the Bush administration.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on January 31, 2010 (boomark / email).