U.S. Attorney

John Ashcroft displays copies of The Record to defend Chris Christie's corruption-busting record: Getty Images Photo
WASHINGTON -- In a combative exchange with Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), former Attorney General John Ashcroft jumped to U.S. Attorney Chris Christie’s defense.

After Sanchez asked whether the selection process complied with the type of guidelines the Justice Department laid out yesterday, Ashcroft said that she was implying that Christie was a “law violator.”

“I really don’t believe that Mr. Christie is a law violator. His record as a prosecutor is an outstanding record,” Ashcroft said.

Ashcroft then held up two copies of Bergen Record headlines about Christie’s public corruption convictions and insinuated that there were partisan motivations behind today’s hearing.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft at a Justice Department news conference in 2003
WASHINGTON - Testifying at today, former Attorney General John Ashcroft mainly explained why he’s qualified to be a federal monitor, but had some combative words for his critics.

Ashcroft compared the type of criticism he’s faced for being assigned a lucrative federal monitor contract by U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to the political attacks he faced during his term as Attorney General. He did not single out any of his critics by name.

“As you may or may not recall there were many people who attacked me in the way that I chose to defend America from terrorists. Those assaults did not shake my commitment to protecting American lives from terrorism attacks,” he said. “Similarly, a monitor should be immune to pressure and should not allow attacks from whatever sources that contaminate the cause of justice. I will not allow external pressures to compromise my responsibilities as a monitor.”

WASHINGTON -- If the Justice Department hoped to allay Democrats’ concerns about deferred prosecution agreements by changing their guidelines yesterday, they weren’t successful.

At hearings today that were first for called by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), Democrats said they weren’t satisfied with the proposed rule changes that would take some power out of the hands of U.S. Attorneys in deciding who gets assigned monitoring contracts.

Pascrell called for hearings after it was reported that U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie gave an oversight contract to former Attorney General John Ashcroft worth $28-52 million.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that the Justice Department continues to look into how federal oversight contracts are assigned, according to a report from the Star-Ledger.

The controversy over deferred prosecution agreements was touched off after U.S. Attorney Chris Christie assigned his former boss, John Ashcroft, to a federal monitoring contract with anywhere from $27 to $52 million.

Mukasey acknowledged that deferred prosecution agreements had recently become more common, and said that he was offered one before becoming Attorney General.

"Yes, we are looking at the phenomenon," the article quotes Mukasey as saying. "Yes, we are going to see if there should be standards."

U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wants congressional hearings on deferred prosecution agreements, like the one that netted former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft a federal monitor agreement worth as much as $52 million over the next eighteen months.

“I think that’s absolutely essential.  I think this administration has played fast and loose with the public dollars,” said Hoyer.

At the request of Rep. Bill Pascrell, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said earlier this month that he was likely to hold hearings on U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s decision to award lucrative no-bid monitor contracts to Ashcroft and others.

U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie identified corruption as the top issue facing the state during a town meeting with three Republican legislators in Monmouth County last night and called on people to join him in the fight for better government by attending government meetings and voting in elections.

But the former Morris County Freeholder and fundraiser for President George W. Bush's 2000 campaign says that his town meeting tour -- he held another one recently with State Senator Peter Inverso and Assemblyman Bill Baroni -- is unrelated to speculation that he might seek the Republican nomination for Governor in 2009.

"It's a fair question," Christie said when asked if he's running. "The answer is 'no.'"