Yoo Too Should Keep an Eye on This
About a year ago the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility disclosed it had been investigating whether John Yoo and Judge Jay Bybee's "Torture Memos" failed to meet the Department's ethical standards for professional responsibility. The report has not yet been made public, but it's leaking (see also here), and if the leaks are accurate, the report will be startling when it is released:
Apparently, among other things the report recommends state bar associations consider disbarring the authors because, according to the report, the memos departed so far from the Justice Department's own standards as to be a breach of professional responsibility.
More startling still are rumors that the report contains emails from from senior officials in the Bush administration dictating the results and outcome of the memos while they were being written. (No surprise there, unless you are a cynic like me -- in that case, you're stunned that the documentation wasn't destroyed.) Those emails, if real, are significant because the Bush Administration's defense has always been a blend of necessity and reliance (last 40 seconds of clip): "Everything we did was -- you know, it had legal -- legal opinions behind it. . . . I got legal opinions that said whatever we're going to do is legal." It should go without saying that a reliance defense begins to look thin (isn't the test reasonableness?) if the Administration asked for carte blanche in advance.
I do not know when the report will be released. But the Office of Professional Responsibility, which is waiting for Yoo and Bybee to contribute their version of the story before it is finalized and sent to Attorney General Eric Holder, has recommended the report be made public when it is finalized. This is something to keep an eye on.
Apparently, among other things the report recommends state bar associations consider disbarring the authors because, according to the report, the memos departed so far from the Justice Department's own standards as to be a breach of professional responsibility.
More startling still are rumors that the report contains emails from from senior officials in the Bush administration dictating the results and outcome of the memos while they were being written. (No surprise there, unless you are a cynic like me -- in that case, you're stunned that the documentation wasn't destroyed.) Those emails, if real, are significant because the Bush Administration's defense has always been a blend of necessity and reliance (last 40 seconds of clip): "Everything we did was -- you know, it had legal -- legal opinions behind it. . . . I got legal opinions that said whatever we're going to do is legal." It should go without saying that a reliance defense begins to look thin (isn't the test reasonableness?) if the Administration asked for carte blanche in advance.
I do not know when the report will be released. But the Office of Professional Responsibility, which is waiting for Yoo and Bybee to contribute their version of the story before it is finalized and sent to Attorney General Eric Holder, has recommended the report be made public when it is finalized. This is something to keep an eye on.
Labels: Rabid Conservatives, Yoo-Hoo
posted by Patrick Bageant at 5:31 PM
19 Comments:
Speaking of Mr. Yoo, did everyone know he's on "sabbatical" at Chapman Law in Orange County right now?
I thought about doing a post on it. It seems pretty significant that a Berkeley professor is taking an open-ended leave to teach at a fourth-tier law school in a much more conservative region.
Rumor has it he got offered a huge pile of money by Chapman.
We send profs everywhere. I know USD and Loyola are recipients.
Still, I'd wager we were particularly eager to send this one. Or that he was particularly eager to leave. The timing seems pretty convenient.
This will be pretty damn interesting to see how it spins out.
I'm in the camp that thinks it's a little TOO convenient timing-wise. Aside from Chapman, the only place that would be more obvious would be Regent, but I assume Yoo loves the California sun as much as the rest of us (though on a day like today, you'd never know).
Anyway, probably best for him personally to be on leave until everything washes over (or the other alternative). You can only take the barrage of criticism he received for so long.
the reporter suggest that the WH pols directly intervened in the memo drafting process?
"Intervened in" is one way of putting it. "Guided" is another.
Dan/Toney, who do you think JY is--a gangster on Goodfellas? He's on a sabbatical, not on the lam.
I'm not sure that JY has a lot of law schools knocking on his door, offering visiting professor gigs. Chapman did so because (a) JY brings attention to Chapman, and (b) his pariah status allows Chapman to get a "well-published" academic. I'm pretty sure that the timing of this semester was Chapman's decision, not JY's.
As for the report--well, I'm not sure how much I trust these leaks. Isikoff clearly hadn't actually seen the memo.
I don't see why suggesting that a man who was shouted down by protesters everywhere he went in this city might want to leave it means I think he's "a gangster on Goodfellas."
I'd probably get out of Dodge too, especially if I was offered money to do so.
while we don't know the contents of this report (and it does seem intriguing that the rendering of a legal opinion could depart so much from Justice Department "standards" as to constitute a "breach" of professional responsibility), it's got to be pretty clear that there is one evident ethical breach (that in itself warrants disciplinary action): the "leaking" of derogatory information about Yoo (whether true or not). Is anyone bothered by that?
Dan, if you do that post, I think you should title it "John Yoo in Orange"
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In all the interactions I've had with Professor Yoo, I'd find it hard to believe that he is "fleeing" Berkeley. If anything, he seems to find his dissenters and detractors and, well, most Bezerkleyans (sp?), quite amusing. My guess, based on what I've heard from him and those who've spoken with him, is that he left for the reasons Carbolic said: Chapman wanted him, and wanted him badly enough to give him a huge pile of money. He'll be back next fall.
I have inside information that the protesters followed him down to Chapman and there have been a few sit-ins and whatnot.
Not to doubt that you have inside information, but that was noted in the LAT article I linked to a couple of days ago.
let's bottom line what really matters:
does this mean we won't have the pleasure of jump-suited protestors at graduation this year??
http://braddelong.posterous.com/letter-to-chancellor-birgeneau
WOO HOO, Voldemort is banished for a while and his Death Eaters are on the run like rats from a sinking ship. Lets pay Yoo to go to hell; I'm sure if we offered him enough money in a nice cushy settlement, he'd go with a smile on his face. After all, he went to Orange County...
It's a little known fact that Berkeley's ethical rules actually DO permit expulsion of Professors if (a) there's a criminal conviction or (b) the prof. has been disbarred. I'd wager money Yoo is "shopping around" because DE and other faculty have the political cover/impetus to ask his to leave once this report comes out. This is a way for everyone to save face, and Yoo can gracefully exit without being fired and/or sanctioned.
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