Update: Bush officials trying to interfere with Justice Department ethics report

[ensho]

http://rawstory.com/news/2009/05/05/deadline-up-for-yoo-bybee-responses/


The Washington Post reports: Former Bush administration officials are launching a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to urge Justice Department leaders to soften an ethics report criticizing lawyers who blessed harsh detainee interrogation tactics, according to two sources familiar with the efforts.

In recent days, attorneys for the subjects of the ethics probe have encouraged senior Bush administration appointees to write and phone Justice Department officials, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is not complete.

A draft report of more than 200 pages, prepared in January before Bush’s departure, recommends disciplinary action by state bar associations against two former department attorneys in the Office of Legal Counsel who might have committed misconduct in preparing and signing the so-called torture memos. State bar associations have the power to suspend a lawyer’s license to practice or impose other penalties.
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The deadline for Bush lawyers who wrote the administration’s policies on torture to respond to a Justice Department investigation has come and gone, Congress was told Tuesday, as the Justice Department ethics unit signaled the final leg of its investigation.

“Sources familiar with the much-anticipated report by the Justice Department’s ethics unit, known as the Office of Professional Responsibility, said it is sharply critical of the authors of the controversial policies,” reported CNN.

The three former top Bush lawyers — including Jay Bybee, John Yoo and Steven Bradbury — face possible disciplinary action from state bar associations for what a former Justice Department official has called “deeply flawed” and “sloppily reasoned” legal analysis in the creation of the so-called “torture memos.”

The forthcoming report is expected to be highly critical of the attorneys.
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what kind of actions can come out of "highly critical"? anything? nothing?

[spanone]

1. i wonder if this is their personal money funding this? who pays for such lobbying?

aiding and abetting?