STEPHANOPOULOS: Final quick question. The president has ruled out prosecutions for CIA officials who believed they were following the law. Does he believe that the officials who devised the policies should be immune from prosecution?That's right, who wants to get into a little thing like 'who tortured who' or 'who authorized what unconstitutional action when' or 'what principle America was founded on was violated where', that stuff is 'retribution'. Not, you know, a prosecution based on open admittance of violation of some of the most point blank and basic laws and treaties this country has. Besides, everyone was operating in good faith. You know, except for all those Justice Department guys who were arguing in those same memos justifying torture, that none of the justifications would really hold up in court, so just keep torturing anyway.
EMANUEL: What he believes is, look, as you saw in that statement he wrote, and I would just take a step back. He came up with this and he worked on this for about four weeks, wrote that statement Wednesday night, after he made his decision, and dictated what he wanted to see. And Thursday morning, I saw him in the office, he was still editing it.
He believes that people in good faith were operating with the guidance they were provided. They shouldn't be prosecuted.
STEPHANOPOULOS: What about those who devised policy?
EMANUEL: Yes, but those who devised policy, he believes that they were -- should not be prosecuted either, and that's not the place that we go -- as he said in that letter, and I would really recommend people look at the full statement -- not the letter, the statement -- in that second paragraph, "this is not a time for retribution." It's time for reflection. It's not a time to use our energy and our time in looking back and any sense of anger and retribution.
Why would we want to punish guys like that? Because our laws and judicial system says so? Grow up, you're being childish again.
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