Pro-Torture Federal Judge Jay Bybee May be Impeached

by TheCameraObscura | April 20, 2009 at 11:45 pm

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You may not know the name Jay Bybee, but he was one of the lawyers in the Bush administration that crafted memos justifying torture, which is a violation of U.S. law and international law.

Today, this distinguished torture advocate sits on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as a Federal Judge, but maybe not for much longer. The New York TImes has called for Congress to impeach Jay Bybee and now some in Congress are talking about doing it.

On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow interviewed Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the Judiciary Committee, about his views on whether Jay Bybee should be impeached:

MADDOW: Do you think that it is possible that an impeachment inquiry is warranted in this case, if only because the circumstances that are known about Judge Bybee’s career are now so different than when the Senate voted on him in 2003?

WHITEHOUSE: It is certainly possible that an impeachment inquiry is warranted. But I think that decision should probably wait until the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility finishes its investigation into the Office of Legal Counsel and all of these opinions.

Whitehouse said the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility is expected to release the results of its year-long investigation in the very near future.