Congress to Hold Hearings on “Torture Memos” Report

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On Friday, the DOJ released a June 2009 Office of Professional Responsibility report finding that two Bush lawyers, John Yoo and Jay Bybee, were guilty of “professional misconduct” in their construction of the memos. But the OPR report was accompanied by a 69-page memo, written in January 2010 by a top Justice Department, that negated the report’s “misconduct” finding and said Yoo and Bybee were guilty only of “poor judgement.”

Both the House and Senate judiciary committees are planning hearings on the Justice Department’s review of Bush administration lawyers’ involvement in the crafting of the so-called “torture memos.” Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the chair of the House commitee, “intends to hold a hearing on these matters shortly,” according to a press release. “Today’s report makes plain that those memos were legally flawed and fundamentally unsound,” Conyers said in the release. “Even worse, it reveals that the memos were not the independent product of the Department of Justice, but were shaped by top officials of the Bush White House.” The lawyers who wrote the memos “wdishonored their office and the entire Department of Justice,” Conyers said.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who runs the Senate committee, has already scheduled a hearing for next Friday. In a statement, Leahy accused the Bush lawyers of taking a “premeditated approach in constructing the legal underpinnings of seriously flawed national security policies.” Leahy also echoed human rights groups’ concerns about Bybee continuing in his current position as a federal appeals court judge. “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,” he said. “The right thing to do would be for him to resign from this lifetime appointment.”

No witnesses have been announced, but Bybee and Yoo could both conceivably be asked to testify.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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