Sen. Specter Backs Holder-- But What Did Holder Promise? By davidswanson Created 2009-01-27 23:25
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/print/39350 Sen. Arlen Specter reportedly [1] backs Eric Holder for Attorney General, now that Holder has satisfactorily answered his questions. But what were those questions? And did Holder promise not to prosecute Bush, Cheney, and gang for their crimes? We don't know. UPDATE: We have an idea [2]: (HT Jason Leopold) Last Thursday, Holder met with Specter briefly in the senator's office, and later in his Capitol hideaway. Specter said he and Holder discussed the interrogation issue and the possibility of prosecutions related to the CIA program. "I got a satisfactory answer. The gist of it is that if you have an authoritative legal opinion, that that is a defense in terms of mens rea or in terms of intent. That's a very broad generalization, and I don't think you can go any further than that until you examine the specific facts of the case and then the conduct is determinative," Specter said. He went on, "You may have an opinion which allows an interrogator to go so far and perhaps the conduct vastly exceeds that, so that it wouldn't be reasonable to think that was comprehended within the opinion. But I think you had a Department of Justice memorandum in 2002 which was in effect for a time and then later repudiated, so that it's really going to be fact-specific." So Holder told Specter that a president can order the drafting of a "legal opinion" that the most well-known crime on earth is not a crime and then act under protection of that "authoritative opinion"? Holder needs to create an independent prosecutor who can think independentl --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to newsfromunderground-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
