http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/the_torture_memo_author_youve_never_heard_of.php?ref=fpbThe Torture Memos will forever be known as the work of John Yoo, the former Office of Legal Counsel lawyer who took the lead in preparing them. But the internal Justice Department report on the memos, released Friday, reveals that a less experienced OLC attorney, working under Yoo, played a key role in the process -- in some cases writing initial drafts of the opinions before getting feedback from Yoo and others.
The name of that lawyer is redacted throughout the report. But in what appears to be an oversight in the redaction process, a footnote identifies her as Jennifer Koester. (The Justice Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the reason for the redaction, and about the oversight.)
Koester, who was two years out of law school and around 28 years old at the time, was clearly a junior level attorney in the process. She appears to have had no authority to approve the final versions of the memos that went out from the department, and was tasked with working with Yoo on them in part because having just joined OLC, she "had some time available," according to the report. But she did take the lead in developing the first drafts of the memos, and briefed the White House on their contents. And it's perhaps surprising -- given the intense level of scrutiny that Yoo has rightly received for his role in producing the memos -- that Koester has until now remained almost entirely under the radar.
Call her the Torture Memo author you've never heard of.
(snip)
Late Update: Perhaps unsurprisingly, Koester appears to be involved with (scroll down to photo 27) the Federalist Society, which famously aims to get ideologically conservative lawyers appointed to high-level posts in government and the judicial system. (h/t reader H.H.)
(end snips)
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