Jerrold Nadler

Nadler: 'Shameful' For Holder To Ignore Bush Waterboarding Admission (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | November 11, 2010, 9:39AM

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said Wednesday that President George W. Bush's recent admission that he approved the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was "a smoking gun" and renewed his call for Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate torture.

But Nadler, the current chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, doesn't expect Holder to act.

"Judging by the record of this Attorney General, he will not pay attention, he will not respond," Nadler said in an interview on MSNBC on Wednesday. "And that is shameful."

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John Yoo Emails

Watchdog Group Sues DOJ Over Missing Yoo Emails

Derek Hawkins | May 11, 2010, 2:35PM

John Yoo

The good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department, contending that the group's requests for records related to missing emails in the torture memo investigation have gone unfulfilled.

In February, an internal report from the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility noted that key emails from John Yoo, the former Bush Justice Department official and one of the authors of the memos, had been deleted and could not be recovered.

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John Yoo

Yoo On Missing Emails: Leahy Is 'Chasing His Own Tail To Feed Left-Wing Conspiracy Theories'

Zachary Roth | March 1, 2010, 9:54AM

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Yoo

In his op-ed on the OPR report that we just told you about, John Yoo also appears to claim ignorance on the subject of those missing emails, and accuses the Senate Judiciary committee chair of "chasing his own tail to feed left-wing conspiracy theories." But Yoo's bravado raises as many questions as it answers.

As we've detailed, OPR wrote that its probe was "hampered" by the fact that it didn't have access to many of Yoo's emails, and was told that they were missing and unrecoverable. Numerous observers, including the National Archives and Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), the Judiciary committee chair, have expressed concern about that omission, and asked for more information on what happened to the emails.

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John Yoo

Former DOJ-ers Doubtful On Missing Yoo Emails Story

Zachary Roth | February 26, 2010, 2:37PM

John Yoo

An internal Justice Department report on the Torture Memos noted that investigators were told that key emails from John Yoo had been deleted and could not be retrieved. But several former DOJ staffers expressed intense skepticism that the emails could in fact have been rendered unrecoverable -- at least without a deliberate effort to destroy them.

"It's hard for me to believe that those emails weren't kept -- unless somebody didn't want them kept," one career Justice Department lawyer, who left in 2005, told TPMmuckraker.

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John Yoo

Leahy Grills DOJ Official On Missing John Yoo Emails (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | February 26, 2010, 12:12PM

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Yoo

At the hearing on the Justice Department torture memos report today, Sen. Patrick Leahy demanded to know whether the DOJ would investigate the missing John Yoo emails -- and determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler told Leahy that he would get back to the committee after looking into the technical aspects of what happened to the emails.

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John Yoo

Leahy At OPR Hearing: 'Where Are Mr. Yoo's Emails?'

Justin Elliott | February 26, 2010, 10:20AM

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy just kicked off a hearing on the Justice Department torture memo report, and he immediately raised the question of John Yoo's missing emails.

"My first question will be, where are Mr. Yoo's emails?" Leahy said, promising to pose the question to Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler.

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