The Independent also explained that, at a briefing for reporters when the Commission was launched, Jennifer Daskal, another of the commissioners, who teaches law at American University in Washington, D.C. and is a former official in President Obama’s Justice Department, “explained that the inquiry was ‘important’ due to the ‘relative lack of significant accountability’ for CIA wrongdoing so far and ‘particularly important’ in light of President Donald Trump’s willingness to consider reviving CIA torture.”

The AP also described how Jennifer Daskal said that the CIA torture program and related programs “have long-term consequences and they don’t just disappear from the American consciousness.” She added, “We’re just a small number of commissioners but I think we reflect a much broader, bipartisan group of individuals across America who are quite concerned about what happened and want to make sure that we don’t ever do so again.”