Author of US ‘torture memos’ to advise team probing alleged anti-Trump conspiracy

A law professor known for his expansive views of presidential power and for decades-old memos that justified harsh interrogation techniques after the September 11 terror attacks says he will be advising a team of prosecutors investigating whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against President Donald Trump.

John Yoo confirmed in an email to Associated Press on Monday that he would be assisting Joe diGenova in an ongoing investigation into whether officials who over the last decade scrutinised Trump participated in a criminal conspiracy against the Republican president.

“He’s a lawyer. He’s going to be helping us,” diGenova said in a brief telephone interview about Yoo. diGenova served as the US attorney for the District of Columbia between 1983 and 1988 and was enlisted in April to return to government as a counsellor to the attorney general.

A law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Yoo was a senior Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration who served as an author of the so-called “torture memos” that government officials used to justify using “enhanced interrogation” techniques on potential terror suspects. The Justice Department later rescinded the memos.

In the years since, he’s remained a prominent proponent of broad executive authority, telling the AP in 2020 that he had told Trump administration officials that a Supreme Court ruling that rejected Trump’s effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, or DACA, opened the door to enormous new presidential power.

The conspiracy investigation is being conducted in Florida, but the scope is unclear, as is whether any criminal charges will be brought.