William J. Haynes, II

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William J. "Jim" Haynes II (born March 30, 1958 in Waco, Texas) is an American lawyer, currently serving as General Counsel of the United States Department of Defense.

Haynes graduated from Davidson College and Harvard Law School. He has been General Counsel of the Department of the Army, a partner with the law firm of Jenner & Block, and an associate general counsel of General Dynamics Corporation.

In 2006, Haynes was nominated by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia. His nomination drew strong opposition from Democrats and even from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.^[1] In January 2007, Haynes announced that he would withdraw from consideration for nomination to the Court of Appeals.^[2]

[edit] War Crimes Prosecution

In November, 2006, the German government received a complaint seeking the prosecution of Mr. Haynes for alleged war crimes. The complaint alleges that during his tenure, he was legally responsible for the US torture programs. ^[3]

Other co-defendants include: Donald H. Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Stephen Cambone, Ricardo S. Sanchez, Geoffrey Miller, Walter Wojdakowski, Thomas M. Pappas, Barbara Fast, Marc Warren, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, and John Yoo.

The plaintiff's legal strategy for the prosecution of Mr. Haynes and his co-defendant lawyers is to attempt to use the precedent of the Nuremberg trials, where German jurists whose legal work was complicit in Nazi atrocities were prosecuted.^[4]