Complicity in the commission of a war crime – torture, ill-treatment of detainees. Approved 2002 and 2003 memos allowing use of "harsh interrogation techniques."
Primary Association:
Chairman, The Ashcroft Group, LLC, lobbying/consulting firm in Washington, D.C
professorship in the Schools of Law and Government at Regent University, “the nation’s academic center for Christian thought and action.”
Secondary Association:
Distinguished professor, Robertson School of Government, Regent University 1000 Regent University Drive, Virginia Beach, VA 23464
John Ashcroft, Attorney General Feb. 2, 2001 - Feb. 3, 2005
Ashcroft presided over the Department of Justice when it authorized torture for the first time, specifically approving of the Yoo/Bybee torture memos of August 2002 and the Yoo torture memo of March 2003. The August 2002 memos authorized the CIA’s torture program, and the March 2003 memo authorized the military’s torture program. In May 2002, the CIA consulted Ashcroft and others about its plan to apply specific abusive methods, including waterboarding, to Abu Zubaydah. Ashcroft concluded that waterboarding was lawful as early as July 2002, before the torture memos were finalized. Later, in July 2003, Ashcroft, Rice, Cheney, and others reaffirmed the CIA’s use of abusive techniques in response to a request by CIA Director Tenet. In July 2004, Ashcroft told the CIA that virtually all of the methods authorized by the second Yoo/Bybee memo were legal if used outside the United States. Ashcroft also anticipated and sought to prevent accountability for torture. In a February 2002 memo, he advised President Bush that a presidential determination finding the Geneva Conventions did not apply to detainees “would provide the highest assurance” against prosecution of U.S. officials for violations of the Geneva Conventions’ safeguards.ent of Justice.*
The Culpable 
Name: John Ashcroft