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Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff reports that then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey and his deputy, Mark Filip, last year objected to a draft report from DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsiblity. The internal ethics watchdog, headed by H. Marshall Jarrett, criticized the work of the Bush-era Office of Legal Counsel, whose Republican activist attorneys provided the shaky legal justifications for torture. 

Writes Isikoff:

According to two knowledgeable sources who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters, a draft of the report was submitted in the final weeks of the Bush administration. It sharply criticized the legal work of two former top officials—Jay Bybee and John Yoo—as well as that of Steven Bradbury, who was chief of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the time the report was submitted, the sources said. (Bybee, Yoo and Bradbury did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

But then–Attorney General Michael Mukasey and his deputy, Mark Filip, strongly objected to the draft, according to the sources. Filip wanted the report to include responses from all three principals, said one of the sources, a former top Bush administration lawyer. (Mukasey could not be reached; his former chief of staff did not respond to requests for comment. Filip also did not return a phone message.)

If new Attorney General Eric Holder accepts the OPR report, its conclusions could be forwarded to state bar associations for possible disciplinary action against Bybee, Yoo and Bradbury, Isikoff reports.