Lawmakers Call for Wider Probe Into Yoo & Bybee Terrorism Memos
Although a U.S. Department of Justice report last week recommended no sanctions be pursued against two lawyers who authored controversial terrorism memos, that doesn’t appear to be the final answer as far as a number of federal lawmakers are concerned.
Senior Democrats are joining with Republicans in calling for further inquiry into e-mails and other information related to the legal ethics case against John Yoo and Jay Bybee say, according to the Washington Post.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today, the chairman, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), asked that Yoo’s e-mails be examined, reports the Blog of Legal Times.
Meanwhile the minority leader, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), called for an inquiry into who leaked to the media information about internal DOJ deliberations concerning the report.
The situation has also cast doubt on the role of the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which initially found that Yoo and Bybee had committed professional misconduct but was overruled by higher-up David Margolis, a senior career lawyer at the Justice Department, the BLT notes in another post.
Additional coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “DOJ Plans No Sanction of Yoo and Bybee Over Terrorism Memos”
Berkeley Daily Planet (reader commentary): “Berkeley Law Students Applaud DOJ Report”
Jurist (op-ed): “http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2010/02/yoobybee-report-let-jury-decide.php”
The Corner (National Review): “Attorney General Mukasey and Deputy Attorney General Filip Shredded OPR’s Misconduct Allegations Against Bush Lawyers”
New York Times (opinion): “The Torture Lawyers”
