Legal News

Criminal Prosectuion of Bybee, Yoo, Unlikely. But Disbarment?

By Ashby Jones

The fates of two Bush administration lawyers who signed off on memos authorizing the CIA to use harsh interrogation tactics became a little clearer on Tuesday. The Justice Department said it’s nearing the completion of an internal probe expected to recommend professional sanctions — but no criminal prosecution — of John Yoo and Jay Bybee (pictured) — two principal authors of the memos. The DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility will likely soon seek a final review from AG Eric Holder. Click here, here and here for stories from the WSJ, NYT and WaPo.

Miguel Estrada, a lawyer for Yoo, now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Maureen Mahoney, a lawyer for Bybee, now a judge on the Ninth Circuit, declined to comment. A third individual investigated, Steven Bradbury, also declined to comment.

The final report is expected to preserve the core findings of earlier drafts, which called on state bar associations to carry out sanctions including disbarment of the lawyers, but recommended against criminal prosecution. White House officials are generally cautious about prosecution, fearing the spectacle could consume the administration and distract from other priorities such as the economy and health care.

Another potential problem for a potential criminal prosecution: It might be tough to land convictions. We blogged last month on an LAT article that explored the potential difficulties.

"It would be a real stretch," George Washington law professor Stephen Saltzburg told the LAT. "They may be bad lawyers who gave extremely bad advice," but that is not a crime.

The above-linked WaPo article explores an alleged lobbying effort undertaken by former Bush administration officials to urge DOJ leaders to soften the report. According to the WaPo, representatives for Yoo and Bybee encouraged former Justice Department and White House officials to contact new officials at the department to point out the troubling precedent of imposing sanctions on legal advisers.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 06, 2009 (boomark / email).