Obama Justice Dept. Won't Prosecute Bush Lawyers Who Authored Torture Memos

6 May 09 | LAT

In a draft report, Justice Department investigators are said to recommend against charges for Bush administration lawyers, instead advocating possible state disciplinary action against 2 of them.

Justice Department investigators have concluded that three Bush administration lawyers who wrote controversial interrogation memos should not face criminal charges, but that conduct by two of them was problematic enough to merit possible state disbarment or other disciplinary action, according to two sources familiar with a draft report.

The department’s Office of Professional Responsibility in December completed its investigation into the legal authorization of the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other coercive interrogation techniques against suspected Al Qaeda leaders. The internal affairs unit concluded that Steven G. Bradbury — one of the lawyers who had worked in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel — had written at least three memorandums from 2002 to 2007 that, although troubling, did not merit any kind of serious disciplinary action, the sources said. >>>

THE BLOG:

• Detainees Tortured to Link Saddam to al-Qa’ida (6 May 09)
• Scott Horton on the Torture Memos (22 Apr 09)

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