August 1, 2017
Dear Senator Klobuchar,
On Wednesday, August 2, fifteen years and one day after the infamous Jay
Bybee/John Yoo torture memos, you will be voting in the Commerce Committee on
the appointment of Steven Bradbury as General Counsel in the Department of
Transportation. As you know, Mr. Bradbury was part of the Office of Legal
Counsel in the George W. Bush administration and also authored memos that in
fact supported torture.
While Mr. Bradbury has a right to be gainfully employed, you once told a group
of us who met with you that you agreed that people were tortured in our name,
that people in high government positions were responsible, and that they should
be held accountable. But you would leave the accountability up to the Justice
Department. Now you are in a position to hold one of those people accountable.
The torture memos were not memos; they were briefs. They were attempts to find
justifications for what the administration wanted to do. That is not conducive
to good lawyering, which would be expected of a General Counsel in the
Transportation Department.
In addition, given President Trump's ambiguous position over time about the use
of torture, a vote for Mr. Bradbury would symbolically send a message that
torture is still on the table. This is seemingly a minor vote, but that would
be a major statement.
Please vote not to confirm Mr. Bradbury, and please make a public statement
explaining the reasons for your vote.
Sincerely yours,
Chuck Turchick
Minneapolis, MN
[The Commerce Committee approved Steven Bradbury's nomination on a party-line
vote, 14-13, with Senator Klobuchar voting "No" with the other Democrats.]
August 7, 2017,
Dear Senator Klobuchar,
I was shocked that you offered no explanation for your August 2, 2017, Commerce
Committee vote on the nomination of Steven Bradbury to be General Counsel in
the Department of Transportation.
You had before you someone who arguably had legally justified torture. As you
no doubt know, torture is a jus cogens crime, one of a few of what are
considered the most horrendous crimes human beings can commit. Because you were
silent on August 2, 2017, I decided to watch the June 28, 2017, hearing at
which Mr. Bradbury appeared. And this is what you said at that time:
"I share my colleagues' concern on the torture issue. We're actually, in
Minnesota we're the home of the Center for Victims of Torture, and I carry the
Torture Victims Relief Re-authorization Act every year. So I think I'm going to
not focus on those because some of my other colleagues did with some questions
on the record for you. But I did want to ask you about one issue -- open skies.
You know, open skies agreements are an important part of our transportation
policies under both Democrat and Republican administrations. These agreements
provide consumers, carriers and airports with more choice, and I'm concerned,
of course, with some recent actions like Norwegian Air...."
Pardon my bluntness, but you don't have a clue. Imagine, if you will, a nominee
who had arguably made legal arguments justifying another of the jus cogens
crimes -- say, genocide. And imagine a U.S. senator who had this nominee
appearing before her committee, and saying:
"I share my colleagues' concern on the genocide issue. We're actually, in
Minnesota we're the home of the Center for Victims of Genocide, and I carry the
Genocide Victims Relief Re-authorization Act every year. So I think I'm going
to not focus on those because some of my other colleagues did with some
questions on the record for you. But I did want to ask you about one issue --
open skies. You know, open skies agreements are an important part of our
transportation policies under both Democrat and Republican administrations.
These agreements provide consumers, carriers and airports with more choice, and
I'm concerned, of course, with some recent actions like Norwegian Air...."
I think you might agree with me that a senator who had so little to say about a
nominee who arguably had legally justified genocide would not be fit to be a
U.S. senator.
Clearly, it's at least arguable that Mr. Bradbury tried to legally justify
torture. In fact, one of the groups that wrote your Commerce Committee's chair
and ranking member, arguing that Mr. Bradbury did exactly that
(https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/22/groups-express-concern-over-trump-nominee-role-torture)
was none other than the Center for Victims of Torture, an agency that you're so
quick to tout when you proudly mention your re-authorization bills.
Mr. Bradbury does not have a right to this federal position. Even if it's only
questionable whether he was trying to justify torture, the mere appearance that
he did sends a message to the rest of the world. In making this nomination,
President Trump may well have been sending that message intentionally. And just
like silence on genocide in my example above, your silence on torture only
reinforces that message.
Please issue a public statement denouncing this appointment.
Sincerely yours,
Chuck Turchick
Minneapolis, MN