David Johnston of The New York Times reports today, based on an anonymous source briefed on the report, that despite the fact that the Justice Department under President George W. Bush refused to prosecute, the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility believes, as an ethical matter, the DOJ now has to prosecute those abuse cases.

The OPR report was apparently provided to Holder at some point over the last few weeks.  And its conclusions are being leaked to the media just as Holder is expected to make a decision to re-open those cases that the Bush administration had rejected.

Last week, GOP senators — including Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) –  wrote to Holder and urged him not to prosecute those cases, warning that prosecutions would “chill future intelligence activities.” (Never mind whether or not the conduct was illegal.)

The latest ethics report now strengthens Holder’s hand.

That the Justice Department sought responses from the subjects of the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility report and is now changing the report as a result has been a source of controversy in the past, particularly from Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).

They both pressed Holder again today at the Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, asking Holder why it’s taken so long for the report to be finalized and released.

Holder responded:  “My hope is to share as much of that report as I can with members of congress and the public.  There are some potentially classified parts of that report, which we will work to declassify.” Holder promised to release the report “in a matter of weeks. They’re pretty close to the end.”

He added, though, that there will then be a “declassification process” that could further delay the report’s release. “As people look at the work that the OPR has done I’d like them to have the full range of information that OPR considered,” Holder said. “That’s why I think declassification of the report is so important. I wouldn’t want to put an incomplete report in the public.”