Great checking and balancing going on here.
The Office of Legal Counsel is an advisory office in the Justice Department. From its website:
[it] ..."provides authoritative legal advice to the President and all the Executive Branch agencies. The Office drafts legal opinions of the Attorney General and also provides its own written opinions and oral advice in response to requests from the Counsel to the President, the various agencies of the Executive Branch, and offices within the Department. Such requests typically deal with legal issues of particular complexity and importance or about which two or more agencies are in disagreement. The Office also is responsible for providing legal advice to the Executive Branch on all constitutional questions and reviewing pending legislation for constitutionality."
The question is whether two previous members of the office broke the law when they wrote memos authorizing the use of torture when terrorist suspects were interrogated. The Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over the office in the Senate and is investigating the question.
Related links:
- Senate Committee Hearing on Ethics Report Disappoints
- Inquiry into missing e-mails written by Bush lawyers is demanded
- The Total Legal Clarity On Torture
- Office of Legal Counsel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
