The disappearance of e-mail messages by Bush lawyers who drafted memos blessing harsh interrogation tactics may launch a criminal inquiry. They cover a critical period in 2002 when Justice Department attorneys labored under heavy pressure on a memo that gave the CIA a green light to use simulated drowning, sleep deprivation and other since-repudiated interrogation techniques against al-Qaeda suspects. The Justice Department's five-year inquiry, which concluded last week, found that Yoo and lawyer Jay S. Bybee "exercised poor judgment" but will not face discipline. In 2001, President George W. Bush nominated former Justice Department lawyer Miguel Estrada to a seat on the federal courts of appeals. Estrada withdrew his name after a filibuster. His wife died of an accidental overdose of alcohol and sleeping pills, having also miscarried during the nomination fight, essentially over memos that Estrada had written while he was in office He now represents Yoo.

'Torture Memo' Author Yoo Gets Private Lawyer for Appeal of Detainee Lawsuit



Miguel Estrada will be representing Yoo for the appeal.

Estrada is a Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner and former Bush nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit,

The Justice Department said it will still pay for Yoo's defense, "as is normal practice when the potential exists for disagreement between the government and the defendant over complex legal questions."

Why We Endorsed Warrantless Wiretaps John Yoo