If George W Bush’s abusive response to the September 11 attacks had been prosecuted rather than swept under the rug, Donald Trump would be less able to pursue his lawless policies. We can’t rewind history, but we can learn from our historic failure.

Twenty-five years ago, on a clear and crisp morning, I was sitting in the Human Rights Watch office in the Empire State Building with an unobstructed view of the World Trade Center towers as al-Qaeda operatives flew two commercial jets into them. The horror of the attack required a response, but Bush and his vice-president, Dick Cheney, chose to react by throwing out the rulebook. They deployed torture and endless detention without trial in Guantanamo.

At first, Americans were so fearful of another al-Qaeda attack that many accepted the Bush administration’s argument that extraordinary measures were required. But as the utter brutality of the response became apparent, dissenting voices grew more pronounced. Yet the reluctance of later administrations to repudiate these measures laid the foundation for Trump’s misconduct.

A May 2009 meeting I had with Barack Obama epitomized the problem. He had recently assumed office and invited me and several colleagues to the White House to discuss his counterterrorism program. The meeting was disappointing.

Our top priority was securing prosecution of the senior Bush administration officials who had ordered the systematic torture of terrorist suspects. Obama declined, wanting to look forward, not back. His priority was working with Congress to secure healthcare reform (ultimately the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare) as well as on issues such as education and climate change. He felt that prosecuting senior Bush officials would be too........

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