Michael Mukasey

Sen. Orrin Hatch and then U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2001
U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch today defended U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s decision to award former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft a federal monitor contract worth up to $52 million.

“I don’t know anyone better than Ashcroft to do it, because if it’s not done right, that could severely damage the company,” Hatch told PolitickerNJ.com today.

Rep. Bill PascrellRep. Bill Pascrell isn’t satisfied with Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Pascrell, who was one of the early critics of the controversial federal monitoring contract that U.S. Attorney Chris Christie gave his former boss John Ashcroft, said that he was pleased that Mukasey admitted changes need to be made to how monitors are appointed. But, he said, Mukasey was not specific or detailed enough in his comments.

“The Attorney General’s testimony only highlights the fact that the Justice Department has been asleep at the wheel while federal prosecutors have had unmitigated power to offer deferred prosecution agreements to corporate offenders and hand out multi-million dollar monitoring agreements to their associates,” said Pascrell in a press release.

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."

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has ignored letters from Reps. Frank Pallone and Bill Pascrell on John Ashcroft's contract
Rep. Frank Pallone said that he hoped the days of a politicized Department of Justice were over when Alberto Gonzales resigned.

But so far, he has not been pleased with Gonzales’s successor, Michael Mukasey – at least not based on his response to Pallone’s concerns about deferred prosecution agreements, like the one that allowed U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie to give his former boss, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, an oversight contract worth up to $52 million.

Pallone wrote two letters to the Justice Department – one in December and one in January—and has still not received a response to either.  He’s already introduced legislation regulating the practice of dolling out deferred prosecution agreements.  

“It’s no surprise to me that the Department of Justice is stonewalling,” said Pallone.  “Bush has had three Attorney Generals now -- all political.  I don’t think they uphold the law and they just can’t be trusted to do the right thing.”

U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie
CONGRESS COULD ISSUE SUBPOENAS, HOLD HEARINGS

In a direct communication with U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey today, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee requested details of federal monitor contracts negotiated by New Jersey's United States Attorney, Christopher J. Christie, and said that if documents are not turned over to them quickly, they could issue subpoenas to obtain them, according to a source with knowledge of the Judiciary panels actions.

And House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers says he is likely to hold hearings on the need for federal oversight of deferred prosecution agreements.

Christie, a leading candidate for the 2009 Republican nomination for Governor, awarded former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft a federal monitor contract worth up to $52 million over the next eighteen months, and has given out lucrative contracts to several other politically connected lawyers, according to published reports.

The New York Times reported today that the Justice Department is conducting an internal review of deferred prosecution agreements, though a spokesman for the department said the Justice Department has been having ongoing discussions about the selection of federal monitors for several months and was not prompted by reports of Christie's deal with Ashcroft, according to Peter A. Carr, a spokesman for the Department of Justice in Washington. "There is no inquiry into that selection. Likewise, the consideration of guidance was not prompted by the actions of any U.S. Attorney," Carr said in a statement released today.

In a letter to Mukasey, Conyers chastised the Justice Department for failing to respond to letters from at least two Congressmen,and said that a report in today's New York Times "reinforces a concern over the lack of real oversight and transparency of deferred prosecution agreements."

"These agreements, which directly affect billions of dollars in corporate business as well as the livelihoods of millions of Americans employed by these corporations, have been completely shielded from review by either the Legislative or Judicial branches of the government," Conyers wrote in a letter also signed by Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law Chairwoman Linda Sanchez, and Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. of New Jersey.

Rep. Frank Pallone continued his push for more safeguards against the abuse of deferred prosecution agreements and oversight over the selection of federal monitors following reports that U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie gave a contract worth up to $52 million to former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.  The New York Times reported today that the Justice Department is conducting an internal inquiry of the Ashcroft deal, and others.

Today, Pallone asked U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey for full disclosure of all information regarding deferred prosecution agreements, and said he is drafting legislation to provide accountability and oversight in the selection of federal monitors. 

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft at a Justice Department news conference in 2003
The Justice Department is conducting an internal inquiry into the process used to award lucrative no-bid federal monitor contracts after U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie gave a deal worth as much as $52 million to former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, according to a New York Times report.

Rep. Frank Pallone wrote to Attorney General Michael Mukasey last November, following published reports that Christie had given contracts to Ashcroft, two other former Bush administration officials, and to former state Attorney General Davis Samson. Rep. Bill Pascrell is pushing for a congressional hearing on the federal monitor issue.