John Choon Yoo is an American attorney, law professor, and author who graduated from Harvard University and Yale Law School. As a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General (2001-2003), in the United States Department of Justice during the George W. Bush administration, he became known as the author of the Torture Memos on the use of what the CIA called enhanced interrogation techniques.
Yoo is also known to support the use of force abroad without congressional authorization.
Yoo is a member of the ‘Bush Six’ — a term used to refer to six former officials of the United States government under the presidency of George W. Bush (2001–09), following the filing of criminal charges against them in Spain. In March 2009 Baltasar Garzón was asked to consider whether Spain should allow charges to be filed against:
David Addington, former Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States (under Dick Cheney);
Jay Bybee, also at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel;
Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of defense for policy;
Alberto Gonzales, former United States Attorney General;
William Haynes II, former general counsel for the Department of Defense (chief counsel for Donald Rumsfeld); and
John Yoo, of the Office of Legal Counsel.