House Dems Want to Impeach Judge for Torture Memos

GOP, Obama can't halt proceeding vs. Bybee
By Gabriel Winant,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 28, 2009 9:43 AM CDT
House Dems Want to Impeach Judge for Torture Memos
A Texas Republican says Nancy Pelosi should be forced to resign for not opposing the torture tactics she learned about in classified briefings. Pelosi says she was forbidden from comment.   (AP Photo)

House Democrats may start a constitutional confrontation over the fate of Judge Jay Bybee, and there’s nothing anybody—not even lukewarm President Obama—can do to stop them, reports Politico. As liberal think-tanker John Podesta argues, Bybee “authorized things that were illegal under US law” when he wrote memos endorsing waterboarding in his role as a Bush legal adviser.

Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to turn down a request from Democratic Congressmen John Conyers and Jerrold Nadler for a special prosecutor, but an expert on parliamentary procedure says that if the House votes to impeach Bybee from the 9th Circuit Appeals Court, the Senate would be forced into a trial. Meantime, Podesta adds, “He doesn't have the moral or legal authority to continue.” (More Jay Bybee stories.)

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