“On June 14 [2004], [Chief of the Office of Legal Counsel, Jack] Goldsmith informed [Attorney General John] Ashcroft that he planned to withdraw the CIA legal memo [allowing torture]. On June 16, he offered Ashcroft his letter of resignation. ‘I had done the unthinkable,’ Goldsmith later wrote. He had withdrawn the ‘Golden Shield’ [that had allowed the CIA to torture detainees with impunity].”
– Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Page 294