John Ashcroft

United States Attorney Christopher Christie and former Attorney General John Ashcroft will not testify in front of the House Judiciary subcommittee next week.

The hearing, which was tentatively set for Tuesday, has been postponed until next month. 

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie might testify before a House Judiciary panel next Tuesday – good news for Democrats who are anxious to see the potential 2009 Republican candidate for Governor get grilled for giving John Ashcroft a federal monitor contract worth up to $52 million. But the bad news for Democrats is that the hearing is being held the same day as Governor Jon Corzine’s budget address to the Legislature. Corzine is expected to propose some major budget cuts, and it’s likely that he’ll dominate the news that day.

Chris Christie may face a real challenge from Steve Lonegan if he runs for Governor next year: Getty Images Photo
Christopher J. Christie got a big headline yesterday with the indictment of former state Sen. Joseph Coniglio. But his victory in prosecuting another prominent public official was tempered a bit by a Wednesday New York Times story harshly critical of “the way he has conducted business” and a Thursday editorial that slammed him around.

Has the aura of inevitability around Christie as the Republican nominee for Governor in 2009 faded?

The next election is nineteen months away, and it’s not even a sure bet that Gov. Jon Corzine will seek reelection. But of the few Republican candidates on the horizon, this winter belongs to conservative activist and former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, whose name is associated with the defeat of two ballot measures in November’s election, and who has taken a stand at the forefront of the anti-monetization movement, warming him to the type of mainstream Republican politicians with whom he’s feuded with in the past.

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.

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.”

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.

Rep. Frank Pallone, who has emerged as one of U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s harshest critics on the hiring of John Ashcroft as a federal monitor, today introduced legislation that would require clear guidelines and independent oversight for federal prosecutors entering into deferred prosecution agreements. Pallone’s proposal would require the Justice Department to ask a federal judge to approve the appointment of a monitor from a list of pre-qualified firms.

"In the absence of any guidance from the Justice Department on how to use, craft, and implement deferred prosecution agreements, legislation is desperately needed that lays out a specific framework as to when these agreements can be used," Pallone said. "My legislation establishes such guidelines to constrain the unfettered discretion that U.S. Attorneys now enjoy so the American people can be confident that their use is not being abused."

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