Attorney General Michael Mukasey is refusing to open a criminal investigation into the CIA’s use of waterboarding even though the interrogation practice is widely considered a form of torture. Mukasey was questioned Thursday by John Conyers, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

John Conyers: “Well, are you ready to start a criminal investigation into whether this confirmed use of waterboarding by United States agents was illegal?”

Michael Mukasey: “That’s a direct question, and I will give a direct answer. No, I am not, for this reason: Whatever was done as part of a CIA program at the time that it was done was the subject of a Department of Justice opinion through the Office of Legal Counsel and was found to be permissible under the law as it existed then.”