Mukasey Disavows Torture Memo

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., right, meets with former U.S. District Judge and nominee for Attorney General Michael Mukasey Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2007, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke) (Lauren Victoria Burke - AP)

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey said Wednesday the president doesn't have the authority to use torture techniques against terrorism suspects, a stance not taken by predecessor Alberto Gonzales and considered key to the nominee's confirmation.

Mukasey repudiated a 2002 memo by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee that said the president has the power to issue orders that violate the Geneva Conventions as well as international and U.S. laws prohibiting torture. The memo was later disavowed and overridden by an executive order on interrogation of terrorism suspects, which allowed harsh questioning but included a vaguely worded ban on cruel and inhuman treatment.

"The Bybee memo, to paraphrase a French diplomat, was worse than a sin, it was a mistake. It was unnecessary," Mukasey, 66, told the Senate Judiciary Committee under questioning by Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Leahy said that he and other senators did not vote for Gonzales in large part because he refused to disavow the Bybee memo.

Mukasey's confirmation was all but assured even before he made the statement at the top of proceedings on whether to confirm him as the nation's 81st attorney general. Democrats from Majority Leader Harry Reid and Leahy on down long have predicted easy and quick Senate approval.

President Bush urged Leahy's committee to endorse Mukasey's nomination in the next few days and the full Senate to confirm him next week. But committee rules would prohibit a vote on the nomination until at least next week.

Within minutes of convening the hearings, Leahy elicited specific assurances from the nominee that had been sought by liberal interest groups and senators who had endured months of Gonzales' faulty memory during congressional hearings and highly parsed statements.

Under questioning by Leahy, Mukasey promised to bar all but the top Justice employees from taking calls or making calls "to political figures to talk about cases," a problem under Gonzales.

"Partisan politics plays no part in either the bringing of charges or the timing of charges," Mukasey said.

Mukasey, a legal adviser to Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, pledged to recuse himself from matters involving his longtime friend and legal colleague.

And under questioning from the panel's senior Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Mukasey said he'd have no problem resigning if the president ignores his legal or ethical reservations about administration policy.

"I would try to talk him out of it or leave," Mukasey replied, his American flag lapel pin mirroring Specter's.