Sanctions, no prosecutions, for memo authors

The Department of Justice is likely to recommend professional sanctions against the lawyers who authored the “torture memos” but will not seek prosecutions, the Wall Street Journal is reporting today.

DOJ has almost completed an internal investigation into the actions of those lawyers, John Yoo and Jay Bybee. Via WSJ:

The final report is expected to preserve the core findings of earlier drafts, people familiar with the matter said. Those drafts called on state bar associations to carry out sanctions including disbarment of the lawyers, but recommended against criminal prosecution, these people said.

Meanwhile, Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) are upset that Stephen Bradbury, who signed off on the memos as the former head of the Office of Legal Counsel, was able to take part in the investigation during the final weeks of the Bush administration.

According to the Journal, the DOJ said Bradbury’s “participation in that process was transparent”