Fmr. CIA lawyer on torture report: Several employees were punished, 1 prosecuted

(CNN) – Former CIA general counsel John Rizzo, author of "Company Man", says the notion that people "got away scot-free" with what some people are calling war crimes is wrong.

"There were several CIA employees who went over the line, who were punished administratively, asked to resign, sanctioned one way or the other," Rizzo said in an interview with CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper."

"There was one employee, a contractor, actually who was criminally prosecuted for assault," he said.

Rizzo was responding to the release of a Senate Intelligence Committee report into the CIA's brutal interrogation tactics against detainees captured after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

While many are calling the tactics torture, Rizzo maintained they were legal, nothing that there were "occasional" abuses.

"The authorized program and the actual techniques that were authorized, I do not believe they were harsh, they were brutal. I still do not believe they reached the legal threshold of torture," said Rizzo.

For more of our interview with former CIA General Counsel John Rizzo, check out the video above.