FBI director nominee James Comey said Tuesday in a Senate hearing that he believes waterboarding is “torture and is illegal,” and that if he were FBI director, he would have “nothing to do with it.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked Comey to square his personal beliefs on the torture practice with his approval of 2005 memos authorizing the practice during his tenure as U.S. deputy attorney general.
“Do you agree that waterboarding is torture and is illegal?” Leahy asked bluntly.
“Yes,” Comey replied.
