The Obama Justice Department is engaged in the worst type of hypocrisy. Its Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is nearing completion of a 220-page report which will recommend that Attorney General Eric Holder refer former Bush administration lawyers to their state bar disciplinary committees over purported ethical lapses in the legal analysis those lawyers drafted to justify harsh interrogation techniques that critics — including President Obama himself — have labeled “torture.” The draft report, which is not public, was nevertheless reported on last night by the Washington Post and New York Times — apparently based on leaks from the Justice Department (in an ethics case, no less). Such bar referrals could result in profound professional and financial damage, potentially including disbarment — all due to actions the lawyers took in defense of the United States after the 9/11 attacks.

Yet, even as the OPR report is being finalized, even after Obama declared himself open to the possibility of criminal prosecution against the Bush officials, and even after Holder promised to conduct an investigation that would “follow the evidence wherever it takes us, follow the law wherever that takes us” (emphasis added), the Obama Justice Department is relying on the very same legal analysis in order to urge a federal appeals court to reject torture claims. In fact, as the Obama Justice Department argued to that appeals court a little over a week ago, the torture law analysis in question has already been adopted by another federal appeals court.

It appears John Yoo cannot be disciplined or disbarred for writing those memos, even if the Office of Professional Responsibility says it has evidence he should be.

That’s because OPR’s five-year investigation—carefully timed for release only as Bush was leaving the White House and Obama was coming in—dragged on too long. As a result of that timing, OPR blew the deadline for referring possible misconduct allegations against Yoo.

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ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

The Office of Professional Responsibility?  Never heard of them.

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ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

The Office of Professional Responsibility?  Never heard of them.

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ORIGINAL: Raechard

So leaving the law aside you are comparing the judgment to deport a Nazi to Germany against that of abuse by CIA interrogators? The UN convention against torture that these laws were derived from are far more clear with respect to pain/suffering from normal legal processes. Anyone could claim they would be tortured to prevent deportation/extradition if this wasn't outlined.

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ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

The Office of Professional Responsibility?  Never heard of them.

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The fact is that on one hand, legal reasoning is being proposed in one case for a certain end, and the exact same reasoning is being rejected in another case, for a certain end.