The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged Michael Mukasey

Report: BP Pays Feinberg and Firm $850,000 a Month

By | 10.08.10 | 4:18 pm

BP is paying Kenneth Feinberg and his law firm, Feinberg Rozen, $850,000 a month to administer the company’s $20 billion oil spill compensation fund, Bloomberg reports today.

Thus far, BP has paid out more than $2.5 million for the firm’s work. It will continue to pay the same monthly More…

In Much-Cited Precedent for 9/11 Trial, Tools for Protecting Information Went Unused

By | 04.09.10 | 6:00 am

As Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) works on a deal with the White House to stop the civilian trial for 9/11 architect Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, he has one overriding fear in mind: The disclosure of classified information that might occur in an open trial. Graham’s communications director, Kevin Bishop, More…

CAP: You Can Give a Detainee a Lawyer and Get Good Intel

By | 01.20.10 | 3:24 pm

Building off Matt’s excellent post about today’s outbreak of GOP enthusiasm for torture and lawlessness, check out this just-released paper from Ken Gude at the Center for American Progress separating myths from facts about the military commissions, civilian courts, and interrogations with lawyers present. For instance, here’s More…

9/11 Masterminds Could Face Trial in Federal Court

By | 10.21.09 | 6:00 am

As the Obama administration nears its deadline for deciding where to try the men suspected of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists attacks, there are strong indications that those trials could take place in federal courts in the United States. That’s prompting fervent opposition from Republicans, who say the 9/11 More…

What Would Kennedy Do?

By | 08.26.09 | 12:13 pm

Former George W. Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen today commends the Bush administration’s “well-run, highly disciplined CIA interrogation program, where clear guidelines were established and abuses or deviations from approved techniques were stopped, reported and addressed.”

I guess Thiessen didn’t read the same CIA inspector general report More…

Controversy Intensifies Over Rumors of Holder’s Possible Interrogation Abuse Prosecutions

By | 07.27.09 | 3:27 pm

The Washington Post’s editorial today arguing for prosecution only of “those who went well beyond the often-extreme measures authorized by the [Office of Legal Counsel] memos” that justified abusive interrogations is calling more attention to the rumor, first reported by Daniel Klaidman in Newsweek, that Attorney General Eric Holder More…

Obama May Seek Authority Outlined by Mukasey

By | 07.21.09 | 4:14 pm

It’s been exactly one year since then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey proposed in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute that Congress pass legislation declaring a new, expanded war with al-Qaeda and the Taliban — thereby granting the president the authority to detain indefinitely members of those groups anywhere in More…

Holder Restores Right to Effective Counsel in Immigration Court

By | 06.03.09 | 1:27 pm

Attorney General Eric Holder today withdrew the controversial ruling by his predecessor that immigrants in deportation proceedings have no right to appeal an adverse decision based on their lawyer’s mistakes.

The immediate effect is to restore the right to re-open a case based on a claim of ineffective assistance of More…

Holder Set to Issue Decision on Immigrant Legal Rights

By | 05.14.09 | 1:52 pm

Attorney General Eric Holder said today that he will soon be issuing his opinion regarding whether immigrants in immigration proceedings can challenge adverse decisions that were due to mistakes made by their lawyers.

As I’ve written before, Attorney General Michael Mukasey in one of his last days in office More…

Torture Distinctions With Differences

By | 04.17.09 | 4:23 pm

Greg Sargent makes a great point about the torture memos:

What was actually revealed in yesterday’s memos was the nature of the Bush administration’s efforts to legalize and justify the “harsh interrogation techniques” that we mostly knew about already. And it’s not terribly difficult to imagine why some folks

More…