OPR Report on “Torture Memos” Released By House Judiciary

In classic DC fashion, the report on the authors of the “torture memos” was released Friday night, buried under headlines about Tiger Woods. While the Department of Justice sent the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) report to Congress, it was the House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers (D-MI) who publicly released not only the final OPR report, but also the first and second drafts of the report and the responses from Yoo and Bybee.

In contrast to most peoples’ perception of Washington, Congress can move quickly when it wants to: by 6pm, less than an hour after the report’s release, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced that his panel will hold a hearing on the report next Friday morning. Leahy also called for Judge Bybee’s resignation.

“I have said before that if the Judiciary Committee, and the Senate, knew of
Judge Bybee’s role in creating these policies, he would have never been
confirmed to a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. The right thing to do
would be for him to resign from this lifetime appointment.”

The long-awaited report is the product of a five-year investigation by OPR, and the materials released by Conyers number more than 500 pages. We will be reading and analyzing the different drafts of the report and providing more in-depth analysis as we know more.

You can read the released documents here:
Memorandum for the Attorney General
OPR Final Report
OPR 1st Draft Report
OPR 2nd Draft Report
Yoo Response to OPR 2nd Draft
Yoo Response to OPR Final Draft
Bybee Response to OPR 2nd Draft
Bybee Response to OPR Final Draft