The woman who will probably be the nation’s top lawyer opened the door to prosecuting the men and women responsible for the CIA’s torture program on Wednesday. And whether the President who nominated her likes it or not, she should act on it as soon as she’s in office.

President Obama’s nominee for attorney general, Loretta Lynch, in her first Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, admitted that certain actions taken by the CIA constituted torture and were illegal. In an exchange with Senator Patrick Leahy in which he asked her if waterboarding was torture, she responded:

Lynch: “Waterboarding is torture, Senator.” Leahy: “And thus illegal?” Lynch: “And thus illegal.”

Given her comments, Lynch should immediately appoint a special prosecutor to seek charges against the CIA for waterboarding three detainees (and likely many more) as soon as she’s confirmed. Since there is no statute of limitations on torture, and the UN Convention Against Torture – ratified by the Senate and signed by President Reagan – requires that the United States prosecute violators, this should be an open and shut case for Lynch.

Lynch did not indicate if she’d read the recently-released executive summary of the CIA torture report, and was not asked if she considered many of the other barbaric and sadistic actions described in the report – such as extended sleep deprivation, beatings, and anal rape – as torture, but she could certainly direct a prosecutor to investigate those claims as well.

Of course, the chances of actual accountability for the CIA is incredibly slim, given the agency can even get away with spying directly on the Senate itself with no consequences. True to form, the Justice Department hasn’t bothered to read their copy of the full Senate report on CIA torture (which runs almost 7,000 pages) despite having it for months. As Huffington Post’s Ali Watkins reported the same day Lynch testified, the Justice Department has disgracefully left the package containing the report unopened, despite the clear lawlessness documented inside it.

Senator Richard Burr, the new Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee, is currently trying to claw back copies of the full torture report that are spread around the executive branch, for fear that Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits against federal agencies could force the report’s release. (Congress is exempt from the FOIA). Journalist Jason Leopold and the ACLU already have separate, active lawsuits demanding the document, both of which the Justice Department is vigorously opposing.

Open government advocates are understandably nervous that Lynch may be as addicted to secrecy as the current Attorney General. An internal watchdog criticized Lynch’s response to FOIA requests as a US Attorney in New York, and she gave evasive answers about her commitment to openness at her hearing on Wednesday. But she can immediately put these concerns to rest by dropping the Justice Department’s resistance to the FOIA lawsuits as soon as she is confirmed.



Given that she believes the CIA’s behavior is illegal, and the government can not use the classification system to cover up illegality, maybe we can all look forward to her enforcing the law as our new attorney general – but after years of waiting for someone in the Obama administration to do exactly that, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

