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Justice Department Declines Punishment for Bush Officials for “Poor Judgment”

The Obama Administration continued the tradition of the “Friday night dump” by just releasing the Justice Department report on former Justice officials John Yoo, Jay Bybee and Steven Bradbury. The report is linked below. The Justice Department confirmed that the investigation originally found professional misconduct by Yoo and Bybee, but an unnamed high-ranking official at the Office of Professional Responsibility overruled the finding to avoid any professional action against them. I discussed the story on this segment of Countdown.


Now the report merely states that the men “exercised poor judgment.” That is a remarkable downgrade from the Nuremberg prosecutions of lawyers and judges for war crimes to the Obama Administration saying that support of torture is a matter of “poor judgment.” Poor judgment is when you invite the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre and Susan Brady to a small dinner party. Arguing for torture and misrepresenting settled law to facilitate a torture program is usually viewed as something of a slightly higher order than “poor judgment” or “bad form.”

That is why the movie was not called “Poor Judgment at Nuremberg.”

Now we are left with a former Vice President who proclaims proudly his support for torture and lawyers who will face no repercussions for their role — and of course an Administration that is refusing to even investigate war crimes. In the meantime, Bybee will continue to rule on cases as an appellate judge under a lifetime appointment – due to the failure of the Democrats to block the nomination.

How did we come to this ignoble moment?

Here is the report: OPR Report

71 thoughts on “Justice Department Declines Punishment for Bush Officials for “Poor Judgment””

  1. “The Justice Department confirmed that the investigation originally found professional misconduct by Yoo and Bybee, but an unnamed high-ranking official at the Office of Professional Responsibility overruled the finding…”

    ************

    A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt to be dangerous.

    ~Alfred Adler

  2. Torture reveals bad information, yes?
    Bad information confuses the central issue, yes?
    The central issue of War is to make money, yes?
    Money is the primary entree that Corporations dine upon, yes?

    We got to where we are because we are a nation of business interests, which are not matched by an equal, and more democratic power. Capitalism’s closest competitor is Stage IV cancer, and the good news is there is money in that as well.

    ++++

  5. History means nothing to the Obama Administration.

    If anyone can recommend an honest, ethical, intelligent human–male or female and regardless of party–for whom an old disillusioned Republican can vote in 2012, please start listing a name (or names, if it is even possible that there can be more than one….)

  7. Why aren’t the players named in a Grievance with each of the state bars that they are members of? Everyone File a GRIEVANCE. Even if Bybee looses his licenses he can still sit as a Judge. You know why? There is no requirement that a Federal Judge even be trained/schooled in law or much less be an attorney. Bybee must be IMPEACHED.

  9. I did not get a TARP bail out, Vaseline either. Just a rim job and it was rough.

  10. Pingback: Report clears Bush officials of misconduct over torture memos

  12. The stuff with my name got grabbed in June 06, sorta. Stock went for 28.00 to 40.00 a share. I had a bit about as much as the president makes in a year. It dropped to 1.66 and presently trading at 2.00 YIPPIE, F****** Skippy…… 1.66 per share.

  14. So is this the preemptive get out of jail free card? The Senate Judiciary is a G** D****d Joke. So they have been passing around monopoly money, now the get out of jail free, they have have been on chance a number of times as well as using the community chest as their own personal funds. Whats left?

  15. “ACLU Calls On Justice Department To Expand Scope of Criminal Investigation”

    http://www.aclu.org/national-security/justice-department-report-reveals-new-details-about-development-and-justification-

    “The report found that Yoo and Bybee engaged in professional misconduct by failing to provide “thorough, candid, and objective” analysis. That conclusion, however, is rejected in a later memorandum written by David Margolis, the Associate Deputy Attorney General. Even Margolis’s memo, however, is critical of Yoo’s and Bybee’s conduct. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the report next Friday, February 26.”

  16. NPR identifies the high-ranking official at the Office of Professional Responsibility that put the kibosh on this report as David Margolis.

  18. Skipping class to go get stoned is bad judgment; driving your car down I95 doing 100 mph is bad judgment; yet, both offenses land one in front of a judge in a court of law.

    The supposed leaders of a civilized nation authorizing torture is sadistic, evil and illegal. And no one will land anywhere near a courtroom.

    Talk about ‘sugar-coating’ … Utterly disgusting. The Obama Administration and DOJ ought to be ashamed of themselves.

  19. This is the single worst spear thru the heart of the American Justice System ever done by the Justice department in the history of the country. This gives the rest of the PLANET the go ahead to implement torture as a standard tool in their arsenal of methods on how to treat prisoners – either foreign OR domestic – because America said it was Okee..Dokee..

    BAD MOVE…

  20. I assumed the wheels of justice have to be moving in order to grind. Do they think the GOP might refuse to work with them????? Thanks for trying to get people to pay attention.

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