Unfortunately, the Justice Department’s response to the letter underscores the narrow scope of the investigation:

"Given the recommendation from the Office of Professional Responsibility as well as other available information, he [Attorney General Holder] believed the appropriate course of action was to ask John Durham to conduct a preliminary review. That review will be narrowly-focused and will be conducted by a career prosecutor who has shown an ability to handle cases involving classified information. Durham has not been appointed as a special prosecutor; he will be supervised by senior managers at the Department.
“The Attorney General’s decision to order a preliminary review into this matter was made in line with his duty to examine the facts and to follow the law. As he has made clear, the Department of Justice will not prosecute anyone who acted in good faith and within the scope of the legal guidance given by the Office of Legal Counsel regarding the interrogation of detainees.”

This statement from the Justice Department emphasizes that the scope of the investigation remains narrow and focused only on the CIA interrogators. While John Durham’s original mandate to investigate CIA tape destruction has been expanded to also investigate CIA interrogators who went outside the legal guidance provided by the Office of Legal Counsel, AG Holder has failed to affirm that the investigation will follow the facts where the evidence leads.

The Justice Department is using the Office of Professional Responsibility’s recommendation as a justification for the investigation. It is therefore high time for Attorney General Eric Holder to release the OPR report on the role of DOJ attorneys in providing legal cover for torture.

Join me in urging Attorney General Holder to authorize a full-scale investigation of those who ordered, designed, and justified torture. This public accountability process can begin immediately with the release of the OPR report on the DOJ lawyers’ role. Only by knowing all of the facts can our nation move forward and take the necessary actions to uphold the Constitution and the law.