Deputy assistant attorney general assigned to the powerful Office of Legal Counsel
War crime charge(s):
Complicity in the commission of a war crime – torture, ill-treatment of detainees.
Drafted legal memos saying President Bush could waive the Geneva Conventions regarding the invasion of Afghanistan by labeling it a failed state and that prisoners seized during that operation would not be covered by the Geneva Convention protections.
Issued other legal memos arguing that the commander in chief was justified in ordering torture during wartime.
Primary Association:
Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley School of Law at Boalt Hall
“Congress doesn’t have the power to tie the President’s hands in regard to torture as an interrogation technique....It’s the core of the Commander-in-Chief function. They can’t prevent the President from ordering torture.”
DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel Deputy Assistant Attorney General 2001 – 2003
Yoo was a member of the Bush administration’s self-styled “War Council” composed of senior administration lawyers. Yoo was one of the primary authors of the memos that supplied the legal basis for the torture programs of the CIA and the DOD. His August 1, 2002 memo authorized the CIA’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including waterboarding. (He had reportedly given the CIA interim approval to use the techniques several months prior.) And his March 14, 2003 memo gave expansive authority to the military to torture detainees. He also drafted numerous other memos giving the executive nearly unchecked authority in the “war on terror,” including memos in which he concluded that the President had the unilateral authority to suspend the United States’ obligations under international treaties. In crafting his memos, Yoo repeatedly set aside arguments from top State Department officials and military service lawyers that his reasoning was legally flawed and would have profoundly negative consequences for the United States.*
The Culpable 
Name: John Choon Yoo
