US asks court for additional deletions in drone-strike memo
The U.S. Justice Department isn’t yet ready to release a redacted memo justifying the killing of an American terrorism suspect living overseas.
The Justice Department agreed last week to release the memo, paving the way for confirmation of its author, David Barron, as a judge on the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But the administration is now asking a federal appeals court to keep secret additional portions of the memo, the New York Times reports.
The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ordered disclosure of the memo in redacted form, and U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. announced he wouldn’t appeal the decision. Now Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Normand says the redactions specified by the 2nd Circuit don’t go far enough, the Times says.
In an order released on Wednesday, the 2nd Circuit asked the government to provide its suggested redactions by June 5. The appeals court also denied a government request to keep secret its entire motion seeking the additional deletions. Instead, the government should keep secret only those portions of the document that it believes in good faith require secrecy.
