The Bush administration lawyers who drafted “torture memos” that provided the legal justification for waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques will not face sanctions for professional misconduct, a Justice Department ethics inquiry has concluded. The review did find that the lawyers, John Yoo and Jay Bybee, showed “poor judgment” in writing the memos after 9/11.
An earlier draft of the report had recommended that Yoo and Bybee be referred to state disciplinary authorities. But then–Attorney General Michael Mukasey criticized its reasoning and returned it for additional review. Bybee is now a federal appeals court judge, while Yoo teaches law at the University of California, Berkeley.
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