Daniel Levin was appointed to the
Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) under President
George W. Bush. In July 2004, he was appointed Acting Assistant Attorney General and head of the office. On August 6, 2004, he sent a letter to the
Central Intelligence Agency advising the CIA that it was lawful to use
waterboarding as an interrogation technique. These opinions were issued in the spring of 2005 under the signature of
James B. Comey, Deputy Attorney General, although he had objected internally and encouraged the Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales in May 2005 to argue against them at a White House meeting. The lawyers were under intense White House pressure to approve these memos.
ABC News reported in November 2007 that Levin himself had voluntarily undergone waterboarding in 2004 before declaring torture "abhorrent" and concluding that "waterboarding could be illegal torture unless performed in a highly limited way and with close supervision." In September 2004, Levin wrote a letter to the general counsel of the
Health and Human Services Department, stating the OLC's opinion that the
anti-prostitution pledge could constitutionally be required from all U.S.-based organization receiving federal funds. This requirement was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2013 in the case
Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc. ==Post-OLC Career==