Former AG Ashcroft Spars With Legislator Over Monitoring Contract

Attorney General

Former AG Ashcroft Spars With Legislator Over Monitoring Contract

Posted Mar 11, 2008, 02:08 pm CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft sparred with the chairwoman of a House Judiciary subcommittee who questioned him today about his consulting firm’s contract to monitor an Indiana medical supply company.

U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez of California described the contract as a “sweetheart deal” in which “Ashcroft was selected with no public notice and no bidding,” the New York Times reports. She chairs the subcommittee on commercial and administrative law.

Ashcroft angrily defended the contract and tried to talk over Sanchez, the newspaper says. “There is not a conflict, there is not an appearance of a conflict,” Ashcroft said.

The U.S. attorney in New Jersey gave Ashcroft’s firm the contract to make sure the Indiana company complies with a deferred prosecution agreement. Sanchez’s committee wants to know if prosecutors are rewarding political pals with monitoring work.

Ashcroft said he should have the same right to compete for such contracts as anyone else.

“I don’t think there should be discrimination against individuals who have had the privilege of public service,” he said. “This hearing costs far more in tax dollars than my monitorship will cost in tax dollars.”

The testimony comes just a day after the Justice Department announced new guidelines that require the deputy attorney general to approve corporate monitor contracts.

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