Spencer Ackerman notes that a provision in the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act says the government will provide defense for any CIA interrogators prosecuted as a result of violating the law through torturing detainees. I would only add that Eric Holder reiterated this in his public statement accompanying the release of the torture memos:
The Attorney General has informed the Central Intelligence Agency that the government would provide legal representation to any employee, at no cost to the employee, in any state or federal judicial or administrative proceeding brought against the employee based on such conduct and would take measures to respond to any proceeding initiated against the employee in any international or foreign tribunal, including appointing counsel to act on the employee’s behalf and asserting any available immunities and other defenses in the proceeding itself.
To the extent permissible under federal law, the government will also indemnify any employee for any monetary judgment or penalty ultimately imposed against him for such conduct and will provide representation in congressional investigations.
As Spencer notes, there's nothing necessarily unusual about the government providing counsel to someone accused of a crime. But Holder's statement, that any monetary penalty resulting from a lawsuit deriving from detainee treatment would be paid by the government seems to go a bit farther. Of course, given the Obama administration's liberal use of the state-secrets doctrine to block such lawsuits, the idea of anyone being successfully sued over this seems unlikely.
-- A. Serwer
