During Attorney General Eric Holder's appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler pressed him to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate torture.

In particular, Nadler asked if Special Counsel John Durham's ongoing investigation of the CIA's destruction of the waterboarding tapes could be expanded to include the broader crime of torture itself. Holder indicated he is still trying to determine whether any crimes were committed.

Holder did not elaborate, but I presume he's waiting for his Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) to determine whether Jay Bybee, John Yoo, Steven Bradbury and the other OLC lawyers wrote "illegal" memos authorizing torture. Holder is clearly unwilling to judge the actions of the interrogators who relied on the OLC memos until the "legality" of those memos is settled.

No mention was made of roughly 100 prisoners who died, including 34-45 who were murdered. Obviously murdering a prisoner can never be legal, but no senior Bush official was ever held accountable.

For more on Holder's unclear testimony, read David Swanson.

Q. What's the status of Mr. Durham's investigation?

A. I'm a little reluctant to talk about an end. I know Mr. Durham is still at work, he's still investigating. He spoke to the Deputy Attorney General a couple of weeks ago and we had an update on his work. And he is still proceeding with his investigation.

Q. But you have no estimate as to when we might have some sort of conclusion.

A. I don't at this point. He laid out for us certainly what he's going to be doing over the next 2-3 months or so but I can't say with any certainty when he's going to be finished.

Q. Given that Mr. Durham has a team of lawyers and investigators who already have been cleared to review classified and sensitive information, and are deep into this issue, would you think it might be a good idea to expand his jurisdiction to include investigation of actual interrogation policy and practice, and ensure his status is that of Special Counsel subject to the guidelines in your regulations?

A. The decision first has to be whether or not that is appropriate. And as I've indicated, no one is above the law, we will look at the facts, we'll look at the evidence, and make the determination that is appropriate based on the information we have in the Justice Department in making that ultimate determination.