Zimmer Holdings

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.

Nicholas Katzenbach, right, at the University of Alabama in 1963, confronting Gov. George Wallace on segregation: Getty Images Photo

Former U.S. Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach thinks that former Attorney General John Ashcroft is a good man – but not necessarily deserving of a federal monitoring contract worth up to $58 million.

“He’s a pleasant enough man. I doubt that he was an editor of the law review or a Supreme Court clerk or something of that kind -- those are the kinds of standards I have,” said Katzenbach, who lives in Princeton and served as Attorney General under President Lyndon B. Johnson between 1965 and 1966.

The contract in question is a position Christopher J. Christie, New Jersey’s United States Attorney, gave Ashcroft, his former boss, monitoring Zimmer Holdings, a medical implant company that admitted paying kickbacks to doctors to use its products. By agreeing to take on a federal monitor and pay a $311 million settlement, the company avoided prosecution.

Although Katzenbach acknowledged that there could be circumstances to the appointment that he’s unfamiliar with, to him it looks political -- especially considering that the Justice Department should appear the most free of political considerations.

Stuart Essig, a Director of medical device manufacturer Zimmer Holdings, has contributed $11k to Rep. Rob Andrews' campaignsRep. Rob Andrews is defending his acceptance of $11,000 in campaign contributions from a Zimmer Holdings director. Zimmer, an Indiana-based medical device manufacturer, agreed to a $311 million settlement with the Department of Justice -- ending a federal investigation into allegations that they paid off surgeons to use their products.

Plainsboro resident Stuart Essig, a former Goldman Sachs managing director, is one of five members of Zimmer’s Board of Directors. His contributions have come between 2003 and 2007.