Judge Jay Bybee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit got a big gift — legal and consulting aid worth some $3.4 million — as he fended off charges that he violated ethics rules by authorizing torture techniques while he was a legal adviser in the administration of President George W. Bush, The National Law Journal reported on Monday.
Jay Bybee
Nearly all of that $3.4 million came from Los Angeles-based Latham & Watkins, whose Maureen Mahoney led Bybee’s pro bono defense from 2007 to 2010, the newspaper said. Its report was based on financial-disclosure forms.
“Experts on judicial ethics said they could not recall another federal judge receiving so large a benefit,” the NLJ said. “Although the fact that Latham represented Bybee has been widely reported since 2009, the dollar value of the work had not been reported.”
The defense team had to respond to congressional and Justice Department investigations into Bybee’s tenure as head of DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel. That office produced memos signed by Bybee and another OLC lawyer, John Yoo, allowing the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods. Critics said the memos showed a reckless disregard for ethical duties.
“Bybee and Yoo won a decisive victory in January 2010, when Justice Department lawyer David Margolis, at the urging of Latham lawyers and others, rejected the idea of referring the two men to state bars for possible discipline,” The Journal recalled. “House Democrats also declined to pursue impeachment proceedings against Bybee, as some of his critics wanted.”
Bybee (who will turn 58 on Thursday) has had to recuse himself from several cases involving Latham, The Journal noted. He was confirmed as a judge by the Senate in March 2003, before the “torture memo” became public.
