Judiciary Chairman Conyers Publishes Report Documenting Bush Abuses

For Immediate Release April 02, 2009

Contact: Jonathan Godfrey Lillian German

(Washington, DC) - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) announced the publication of the final version of the Democratic Committee staff report on systematic abuses of presidential power during the Bush administration. The report, titled "Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush," contains 50 separate recommendations designed to correct the imbalanced separation of power that characterized the George W. Bush presidency. Chief among Conyers’ recommendations include continued congressional investigations like those the Judiciary Committee has pursued concerning Karl Rove’s interactions with the Justice Department, a blue ribbon commission similar to the panel proposed in Chairman Conyers’ H.R. 104, and independent criminal probes to be conducted by federal prosecutors.

Lots more here: http://judiciary.house.gov/news/090402.html

Just to give you an idea of what it covers, here's excerpts from the Table of Contents:

Section 1 – Politicization of the Department of Justice . . 41
I. Politicization of the Prosecution Function. . . .. . . 43
A. Hiring and Firing of U.S. Attorneys and other Department Personnel ... 43
B. Selective Prosecution. ...50
II. Politicization of the Civil Rights Division. . . . . . . . . . . 55
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Politicization of the Prosecution Function. . . .. . . . 66
Politicization of the Civil Rights Division and Voting Rights Enforcement . .. 72
Section 2 – Assault on Individual Liberty: Detention, Enhanced Interrogation, Ghosting and Black Sites, Extraordinary Rendition, Warrantless Domestic Surveillance, and National Security and Exigent Letters. .. 75
I. Detention . . . . . .77

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November 2001 Decision to Try Detainees, Including U.S. Citizens, in
Military Commissions . . . . . . . 78
December 2001 Decision to Hold Detainees at Guantanamo . . . . . . . . 81
The Administration’s Public Defense of Its Guantanamo Policies . . . . 82
B. The Bush Administration’s Detention Policies in the Courts . . . . . . . . 85
The President’s Power to Detain an American Citizen Captured in Afghanistan Without Judicial Review (Hamdi). . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
The President’s Power to Establish Military Commissions to Determine
Validity of Detention (Hamdan) . . . . .. 89
The President’s Power to Order Detention of Persons Without Access to
Federal Courts – Rasul and Boumediene . . . . . . . 91
The President’s Power to Order the Military Detention of an American
Citizen Seized by Civilian Authorities in the United States (Padilla) . . . . . 93
The President’s Power to Order Military Detention of Lawfully Admitted
Alien Seized by Civilian Authorities in the United States (al-Marri). . 107

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December 2001 to February 2002 – Determinations That the Protections of the Geneva Conventions, Including Common Article III, Do Not Apply to Guantanamo Detainees . . . .. . . . . 114
The August 1, 2002 Torture Memorandum. . . . . . 116
August 1, 2002 – Waterboarding Approved for CIA Use . . . . . . . . . . 118
October 2002 to March 2003 – Development of Techniques for Use at Guantanamo. . .. 119
John Yoo’s March 14, 2003 Torture Memorandum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Use of Harsh Interrogation at Guantanamo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

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Destruction of CIA Waterboarding Videotapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
B. Committee Action . . . . . . 133
Effectiveness of Enhanced Interrogation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Potential Criminal Liability for Destruction of Videotapes. . . . . . . . . 135
OLC Opinions Concerning Enhanced Interrogation and Potential Legal Liability Thereto. . 136

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IV. Warrantless Surveillance . . . . . . . . . . . 152
A. The Genesis of the Bush Administration’s Warrantless Surveillance
Program. . . . . 152
B. Internal Disagreements as to the Program’s Legality; Disclosure of the
Program by The New York Times in December 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
C. Bush Administration’s Public Statements Concerning Warrantless
Surveillance . . .. 160
D. Concerns About Legality and Effectiveness of the President’s Warrantless
Surveillance . . . 162
E. Additional Scrutiny and Legislative Activity in the 110th Congress . . 167
V. National Security Letters (NSLs) and Exigent Letters. . 172
A. The Increased use of NSLs Subsequent to 9/11 and the Enactment of the
PATRIOT Act and PATRIOT Reauthorization Act . . . . 172
B. March 2007 Justice Department Inspector General Report and
Subsequent Committee Hearings. . . . . . 173
C. March 2008 Justice Department IG “Assessment of Corrective Action”
Report and Subsequent Committee Hearings . . . 177

and lots lots more....