John A. Rizzo

"John Rizzo" redirects here. For the politician, see John Rizzo (politician). For the baseball player, see Johnny Rizzo.

John A. Rizzo
Born
John Anthony Rizzo

(1947-10-06)October 6, 1947
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedAugust 6, 2021(2021-08-06) (aged 73)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
EducationBrown University (BA)
George Washington University (JD)
OccupationLawyer
Known forActing General Counsel of the CIA
Spouses
Priscilla Walton Layton
​
​
(divorced)​
Sharon Knight
​
​
(m. 1993; died 2021)​

John Anthony Rizzo (October 6, 1947 – August 6, 2021)[1] was an American attorney who worked as a lawyer in the Central Intelligence Agency for 34 years. He was the deputy counsel or acting general counsel of the CIA for the first nine years of the War on Terror, during which the CIA held dozens of detainees in black site prisons around the globe.[2]

During the George W. Bush administration, the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice approved various forms of torture (referred to as "enhanced interrogation techniques") in memos to Rizzo for use by CIA interrogators at the black sites.[3] Rizzo signed off on all CIA-directed drone strikes from September 2001 until October 2009.[4]

He was a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and Senior Counsel at the Steptoe & Johnson law firm.[5]

  1. ^ Rizzo, John (2014). Company Man: Thirty Years of Controversy and Crisis in the CIA. New York: Scribner. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-4516-7393-7.
  2. ^ Mazzetti, Mark (June 20, 2007). "Nominee for C.I.A. Counsel Offers Few Details in His Senate Confirmation Hearing". The New York Times. Retrieved October 6, 2011.
  3. ^ Talev, Margaret; Taylor, Marisa (April 16, 2009). "Bush-era interrogations: From waterboarding to forced nudity". McClatchy. Retrieved October 6, 2011.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference TopSecretAmerica was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Rizzo, John A. (March 30, 2012). "The CIA-Congress War". Defining Ideas. Archived from the original on April 1, 2012.