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Feinstein live-tweeted a devastating takedown of the CIA director's defense of torture

Zack Beauchamp is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers ideology and challenges to democracy, both at home and abroad. Before coming to Vox in 2014, he edited TP Ideas, a section of Think Progress devoted to the ideas shaping our political world.

CIA director John Brennan gave a  press conference on Wednesday afternoon defending the agency from the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's use of torture during the Bush administration. During the speech, Sen. Dianne Feinstein — the leading force behind the report — fact-checked Brennan's assertions. And it was devastating.

For example, when Brennan said it was "unknowable" whether torture was necessary to produce useful intelligence, Feinstein pointed out that the CIA's own records show that the best intel was obtained without torture:

When Brennan said the CIA didn't mislead Congress, Feinstein cited CIA sources saying otherwise:

When Brennan said torture provided "useful intelligence," Feinstein pointed out that — even if that was true — this wasn't nearly enough to justify its use in legal terms:

Brennan said that tortured detainees provided "useful intelligence" in the hunt for bin Laden. Feinstein points out, correctly, that torture played no role in finding the al-Qaeda chief:

Feinstein also went off on the CIA's use of torture more generally, dismantling the agency's legal and practical case for the program as well as its attacks on the report's credibility:

The whole feed is pretty devastating.