The Intercept: Trump Admin Fights in Court to Prevent Top CIA Official from Testifying on Torture
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FIGHTS IN COURT TO PREVENT TOP CIA OFFICIAL FROM TESTIFYING ON TORTURE
Alex Emmons
May 5 2017, 3:17 p.m.
MORE THAN EIGHT YEARS after President Obama formally ended the CIAs torture program, the Trump administration is fighting to block the CIAs new deputy director from providing a deposition about her role in pioneering the agencys most abusive torture techniques.
The Trump administration
appointed Gina Haspel as deputy director of the CIA in February, attracting criticism from human rights advocates due to her former role in abusive interrogations. The move was
interpreted as a public sign of the administrations approval for some of the CIAs most brutal abuses after the 9/11 attacks.
Haspel is being called to provide a deposition by James Mitchell and John Bruce Jessen two contract psychologists who made tens of millions of dollars for their work shaping the CIAs torture program. The ACLU is suing Mitchell and Jessen on behalf of three former CIA detainees one of whom
died in captivity in 2002 after being beaten and doused with cold water.
Lawyers for Mitchell and Jessen claim that everything the psychologists did was authorized by the CIA, and that Haspel would confirm that if the court ordered her to give a deposition. Lawyers are also seeking numerous documents, and a deposition from James Cotsana a retired CIA official whom Mitchell and Jessen identified as their direct supervisor.
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https://theintercept.com/2017/05/05/trump-administration-fights-in-court-to-prevent-top-cia-official-from-testifying-on-torture/