Leahy: Bybee refused to appear before Judiciary subcommittee hearing on torture memos

[struggle4progress]

Last month, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) invited Judge Jay Bybee to testify in front of a subcommittee about his “views” regarding torture and his “role” in drafting the torture memos. The Los Angeles Times subsequently reported that Bybee had chosen to ignore Leahy’s request. Today, however, in a statement during the hearing, Leahy said that Bybee had specifically refused to appear:

Since Judge Bybee, through his lawyers, has declined to testify before the Committee at this time about his role in the drafting and authorization of memoranda from the Office of Legal Counsel that permitted torture, I can only presume that he has no exonerating information to provide. Judge Bybee must know that the presumption in our civil law is that when a person fails to come forward with information in his possession that is relevant to a matter, it is presumed to be because the information is negative and not helpful to his cause ... http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/13/leahy-bybee-hearing/

[LakeSamish706]

1. I hope Leahy sends him a subpoena to appear and lets see where our current...

Justice Department stands on upholding such a subpoena.