Justice Dept. hiring marred by politics: probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top aides to former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales broke the law by injecting politics into what should have been the non-partisan hiring of career lawyers and immigration judges, according to a Justice Department report released on Monday.

The department's inspector general and its office of professional responsibility concluded that Monica Goodling, the White House liaison, and Kyle Sampson, Gonzales' chief of staff, also committed misconduct.

In another finding, the report said Goodling and two other department employees gave inaccurate information in response to inquiries about department hiring practices.

Goodling previously worked on political research for the Republican Party before joining the department in 2002. In late 2005, she served as senior counsel to Gonzales and later as the department's White House liaison.

Goodling resigned last year after a congressional investigation into whether politics was behind the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, a scandal that has plagued the Bush administration and contributed to the resignation of Gonzales nearly a year ago.

"This report details the misconduct committed by several high-ranking officials in the office of the attorney general, and the steps they took to politicize certain career positions," said H. Marshall Jarrett of the office of professional responsibility.

"Our investigation found that Goodling improperly subjected candidates for certain career positions to the same politically based evaluation she used on candidates for political positions, in violation of federal law and department policy," the report concluded.

For example, approval was sought from Goodling to hire an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., for a vacant job. She responded that the candidate gave her pause because he appeared to be a "liberal Democrat," the report said.

The investigation found Goodling often used political or ideological affiliations to select or reject career attorney candidates for temporary positions. Once, Goodling rejected an experienced career terrorism prosecutor because his wife had been active in the local Democratic Party.

RESEARCHED POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Both department policy and federal law bar the use of politics in making decisions on the hiring for career jobs.

The report found that Goodling, her predecessor Jan Williams and Sampson, who also had been a top aide to Attorney General John Ashcroft, inappropriately considered political or ideological affiliations in selecting immigration judges.

It said Goodling screened candidates by researching their political contributions and voter registration records.

Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat and the House Judiciary Committee chairman, said he has directed his staff to review whether Goodling, Gonzales and Sampson lied to Congress and whether a criminal referral for perjury is indicated.

Goodling's lawyers rejected any suggestion she may have lied. They said her testimony "is generally acknowledged as among the most candid and meticulous that has been seen on Capitol Hill in decades."

In a statement, Gonzales said: "Political considerations should play no part in the hiring of career officials at the Department of Justice."

The report said Gonzales was generally unaware of the actions of his aides.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and the judiciary committee chairman, said the widespread politically based actions could not have been done without at least the tacit approval of senior department officials.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who President George W. Bush selected to succeed Gonzales, said he was "disturbed" by the findings.

"It is crucial that the American people have confidence in the propriety of what we do and how we do it, and I will continue my efforts to make certain they can have such confidence," Mukasey said.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro; editing by David Alexander and Todd Eastham)