Chris Christie

Appearing before the House Judiciary Committee, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said he didn’t know when the Justice Department would respond to questions regarding federal monitor contracts and deferred prosecution agreements, and said he did not know the details of the contract given to former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

But Mukasey did say his department began reviewing procedures to award federal monitor contracts before key House members began seeking information.

“The increasing phenomenon of monitors is something that we noticed well before there came to be publicity about it and have been looking into it,” Mukasey said. “We've asked the Attorney General's Advisory Committee, which is a group of United States attorneys from around the country who can gather information from United States attorneys about the prevalence of the phenomenon and whether there is a way of coming up with best practices or guidelines.”

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.”

Chalk up another prominent New Jersey politician who thinks Bob Menendez would be a fine vice-presidential pick in the extremely improbable event that Hillary Clinton chooses him as a running mate.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said state Sen. Loretta Weinberg.

Weinberg, who supports Barack Obama, praised Menendez for his recent work on causes like Iraq, the economy and health care. 

“I think that the more time he spends on that as opposed to other areas, I think the better US Senator he’s become, and I think that people in New Jersey should be very proud of him,” said Weinberg. 

Weinberg said that the U.S. Attorney’s investigation into Menendez in 2006 should not hurt his prospects.

At a news conference on Friday, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that the Justice Department continues to review the process prosecutors use to pick federal monitors in deferred prosecution agreements, and kept the door open to new guidelines that might make the selection process less political in the future.  Mukasey refused to criticize the $28 million to $52 million contract awarded to one of his predecessors, John Ashcroft. 

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.

Speaking last week at Toms River Mayor Thomas Kelaher's swearing-in ceremony, U.S. Attorney Chris Christie preaches the politics of hope.

 Toms River Mayor Thomas KelaherReflecting on when he first moved to Toms River over 50 years ago, Thomas P. Kelaher said there were more chickens and chicken coops than people and houses, and now the Ocean County shore town has a population of almost 100,000 and is the seventh largest municipality in the state.

Still, it has some distance to go before it becomes a full-fledged city, as New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg reminded Kelaher when they lunched several days ago at a meeting of mayors.

"When he asked me to describe the characteristics of Toms River, I told him we did have 600 miles of streets and he said, ‘Tom, that’s nice, but in New York City we have 6,000 miles of streets,’" said Kelaher, 75, who was sworn in as the town’s second elected mayor at Town Hall on Tuesday.