Monica Goodling and D. Kyle Sampson, key aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, violated federal law and departmental policy by considering political affiliation and other improper factors in Justice Department hiring decisions, according to another devastating report from DOJ’s Inspector General and the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, issued this morning.
The report can be accessed here.
Here’s a summary of findings: Goodling.doc
Here’s the NYTimes story. Here the WaPo. TPMMucracker is picking through the report here. Their choice quote from the WaPo:
Goodling regularly asked candidates for career jobs, “What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?”
More like it here.
Steve Benen reminds us:
The Justice Department’s inspector general is releasing the results of a lengthy investigation in four parts, and this is the second. The first was released about a month ago, and documented six years of illegal hiring practices relating to the Justice Department recruiting new attorneys (those with “liberal-sounding resumes” for barred from employment). Today’s report documents the allegedly illegal conduct from Goodling and Sampson (among others). Still to come are reports on hiring problems in the civil rights division and the dubious purge of nine U.S. attorneys.
Think Progress has video of current Attorney General Michael Mukasey refusing to say whether Gonzales politicized the Department of Justice during a Senate hearing earlier this month and quotes House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers on the new report:
“I have directed my staff to closely review this matter and to consider whether a criminal referral for perjury is needed.”
After some crowing (w/links!) Kagro X at Daily Kos suggests we check out The Gavel, “where other Capitol Hill staffers have pulled out all the best parts for you.”