Posts tagged as John Yoo
Justice Dept. Finally Sued Over Torture Emails
When last we spoke about John Yoo, in early March, The National Archives and Records Administration was begging the Department of Justice to cough up information about all his missing emails from the period that he was composing America's fine torture emails. And back in February, it was demanded that the Justice Department explain whether the missing emails of Yoo and and fellow torture memo author Patrick Philbin were disappeared by means of "unauthorized destruction." John Conyers, chair of the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, made the same demand on March 1. It is now the middle of May and the DoJ is still like "la la la, I can't hear you." Also, the DoJ is not forthcoming about what exactly was destroyed-that question being, were emails about the torture memos specifically disappeared? Now, while technically we think any number of government outfits should be formally investigating the DoJ itself (awkward!), it's fallen on the stonewalled nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to file suit in the U.S. District Court for D.C.
So We Guess By Maybe 2018, John Yoo Will Be Disbarred
Okay, we can all sleep at night. The National Archives and Records Administration has asked the Justice Department to investigate the missing John Yoo emails; Justice says there is a "review" underway. So no matter what the torture-justifier says about his missing emails-"They should be easy to find," LOL!-eventually we'll get there.
How Many Years Will It Take Us To Get John Yoo's Emails?
The number one thing I am pissed off about this month, right after NBC's Olympics coverage, is the disappeared John Yoo emails, which could probably shed a lot of light on how the previous administration created policies to torture people. This is such an unbelievable scandal, both on the issue of torture but also of government accountability. Pretty much, as a nation, everything should come to a standstill until this is dealt with. This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee asked Gary Grindler, Acting Deputy Attorney General, about the emails, and got total mumbling in response. This is like, pitchforks and subpoenas and prosecution time, people. There are extremely explicit rules about this kind of thing, and in light of the Bush administration email-disappearing shtick, in which everyone had to go to court over and over again simply to get what should have been carefully-conserved White House emails, was bad enough. But these are actual lawyers, at the actual Department of Justice, who have engaged in disappearing critical emails.
How John Yoo Got Off Scot-Free
Despite what is surely deliberate obstruction, in the form of having deleted John Yoo's emails, the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility still found grounds to come down on Bush administration-era torture memo writer Yoo (though not on his junior level memo writer, who was two years out of law school and a a former Justice Thomas clerk). This, despite the fact that the OPR rarely investigates claims at all, and when they do, their honcho disappears them. And yes, once again DoJ boss David Margolis has decreed that, though the memo prepared by his staff clearly describes "professional misconduct" (at best!), that no action should be forthcoming against Yoo and company and that the memo itself is "not persuasive." His case is very weak. READ MORE
John Yoo Explains How To Get To His Secret Law Class
This is a fine how-do-you-do. John Yoo's spring California Constitution class at Berkeley doesn't give a location on the roster. Because, you know, too much ruckus about how he should be prosecuted by people who think he gave a legal workaround for government torture. Yoo wrote to Above the Law, explaining the private address: "The location of the class, of course, is available to the students who want to take it. If the protesters want to go, they could always apply for admission as 1Ls and pay the full tuition like everyone else. They will find that it is harder to compete for admission with our smart and accomplished students than it is to make a ruckus." Oh I see.
