Justice Dept. aides broke law in hiring, inquiry finds
Gonzales assistants used politics to guide decisions, report says.
By Eric Lichtblau

THE NEW YORK TIMES


Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales broke civil service laws by using politics to guide their hiring decisions, picking less-qualified applicants for important nonpolitical positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department's credibility, an internal report concluded Monday.

A longtime prosecutor who drew rave reviews from his supervisors was passed over for an important counterterrorism slot because his wife was active in Democratic politics, and a less-experienced lawyer with Republican leanings got the job, the report said. Another prosecutor was rejected for a job in part because she was thought to be a lesbian. And a Republican lawyer got high marks at his job interview because he was found to be sufficiently conservative on the core issues of "god, guns + gays."

The report, prepared by the Justice Department's inspector general and its internal ethics office, centered on the misconduct of a small circle of aides to Gonzales, including Monica Goodling, a former top adviser to the attorney general, and Kyle Sampson, his former chief of staff. The report also found that White House officials were actively involved in some of the hiring decisions.

The report said officials at the White House developed a method of searching the Internet to glean the political leanings of a candidate and introduced it at a White House seminar called "The Thorough Process of Investigation." Justice Department officials then began using the technique to search for key phrases in an applicant's background, like "abortion," "homosexual," "Florida recount" or "guns."

The report focused its sharpest criticism on Goodling, a young lawyer from the Republican National Committee who rose quickly in the department to become a top aide to Gonzales.

Goodling testified before Congress in May 2007, at the height of the scandal over the firings of nine U.S. attorneys, and admitted that she might have "crossed the line" at times in using politics in hiring decisions. But Monday's report cataloged an effort much more systematic than Goodling had described, leading some Democrats to charge that she, Sampson and Gonzales should be investigated for perjury over their congressional testimony.

Last month, Inspector General Glenn Fine and the Office of Professional Responsibility released a report that found a similar pattern of politicized hiring at the Justice Department in reviewing applications from lawyers for the honors and intern programs. The new report, released Monday, goes further in documenting evidence of political hiring for some of the department's most senior career positions, including immigration judges, assistant U.S. attorneys and senior counterterrorism officials.

The pattern appeared most damaging in the hiring of immigration judges. Vacancies were allowed to go unfilled and the backlog of deportation cases grow while Gonzales' aides looked for conservative lawyers to fill what were supposed to be apolitical jobs.

The inspector general's investigation found that Goodling and a handful of other senior aides to Gonzales had used in-person interviews and Internet searches to screen out candidates who might be too liberal and identify candidates seen as pro-Republican and supportive of President Bush. One senior official, in describing Goodling's strategy, likened it to a "farm system" used to fill temporary vacancies at the Justice Department with Republicans who could then move up.

The actions of Goodling, Sampson and other aides constituted official misconduct in violation of federal civil service laws and the department's internal policies, the report concluded. Those who violate civil service laws cannot generally be prosecuted under criminal law.

All but one of the Justice Department officials cited in the report for misconduct have now left the department, meaning those who have left are not subject to internal discipline. The report recommended that the Justice Department consider disciplinary action against the only remaining official, John Nowacki.

Goodling and other lawyers named in the report could face disciplinary action from their local bar associations, officials said.

When interviewed by the inspector general, Gonzales said he was not aware that Goodling and other aides were using political criteria in their decisions for career positions. Gonzales resigned last summer in the face of mounting accusations from congressional Democrats that politics had corrupted the department.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who succeeded Gonzales, said he was "of course disturbed" by the findings. He said he would make sure "that the conduct described in this report does not occur again at the department."

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