Attorney General Asked To Assess
Damage Done To
Justice Department By Illegal, Politicized Hiring Practices
WASHINGTON (Friday, August 1,
2008) – In
the wake of reports that Justice Department officials used
political and ideological screening tests to fill career
positions, seven Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary
Committee today asked Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey to
assess whether this illegal hiring practice has done long-term
damage to the mission of the Department.
The letter to Mukasey was signed
by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and
Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Edward M. Kennedy
(D-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Russ Feingold (D-Wis.),
Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), all
members of the panel.
“We are concerned that the people
hired into important career positions throughout the Department
using the unlawful, politicized process described in the reports
remain in place. This raises the troubling possibility that
those positions are held by unqualified, partisan individuals,”
the senators wrote. “We urge you to ensure that the people put
in place via this illegal process meet the Department’s high
standard of qualifications, and do not undermine the
Department’s independence and ability to enforce the law without
fear or favor.”
The full text of the letter
follows; a PDF is available
online.
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August 1, 2008
The Honorable Michael Mukasey
Attorney General
U.S. Department of
Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
20530-0001
Dear Attorney General Mukasey:
We write regarding two reports
released by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector
General (OIG) and Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR)
that document the improper and illegal hiring process used by
senior Department officials to fill career positions throughout
the Department. We are concerned that this process not only
broke the law and the Department’s own rules, but resulted in
important positions throughout the Department being filled by
unqualified, partisan attorneys.
The first joint report from OIG
and OPR, released June 24, concluded that Department officials
employed improper political and ideological screening tests for
young attorneys hired into the Department’s prestigious Honors
Program and Summer Law Intern Program. According to this
report, “many qualified candidates were deselected . . . because
of their perceived political or ideological affiliations.” This
deeply flawed process calls into question whether those hired
into two of the most important career employment programs at the
Department were the most qualified candidates.
The second report, released
earlier this week, documents the use of improper and illegal
political and ideological considerations in the hiring of
Assistant United States Attorneys, the placement of experienced
attorneys in key detail and leadership positions, and the hiring
of Immigration Judges and Board of Immigration Appeals members.
In some cases, well-qualified applicants for these positions
were passed over in favor of unqualified applicants who met a
political litmus test. We find particularly troubling one case
where a highly qualified counterterrorism detailee was rejected
because of his wife’s political affiliation. The candidate was
a longtime Assistant U.S. Attorney who served as chief of the
anti-terrorism unit in his U.S. Attorney’s Office and had
received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service
for his successful prosecution of a high profile terrorism
case. Although the Director and staff at the Executive Office
of U.S. Attorneys believed he was the best candidate, he was
passed over in favor of a prosecutor with no counterterrorism
experience and fewer than the minimum number of years of
prosecution experience required by the Department’s job
announcement.
We are concerned that the people
hired into important career positions throughout the Department
using the unlawful, politicized process described in the reports
remain in place. This raises the troubling possibility that
those positions are held by unqualified, partisan individuals.
With this possibility extant, we believe it is inadequate for
the Department simply to commit to discontinue the bad
practices. There may be continuing consequences of the
widespread illegal hiring process. We urge you to ensure that
the people put in place via this illegal process meet the
Department’s high standard of qualifications, and do not
undermine the Department’s independence and ability to enforce
the law without fear or favor.
Therefore, we request that you
tell us 1) the steps you intend to take to assess what
continuing effects may persist within the Department due to the
illegal and improper hiring described in the two reports; and 2)
how you will ensure that the unlawful process described in those
reports did not result in the hiring of career attorneys,
detailees, Immigration Judges, or Board of Immigration Appeals
members who are unqualified, who have failed to uphold the
standards of professionalism and political independence expected
of all Department officials, or who were complicit in the
unlawful process by which they were hired.
Finally, as we approach an
important national election, we ask you to tell us what you have
done to assure that the operation of the Civil Rights Division
and law enforcement efforts related to the election are not
affected by the people put into career positions by the flawed
and illegal processes described in the reports.
We appreciate your prompt
attention to this matter and look forward to your reply.
PATRICK
LEAHY SHELDON
WHITEHOUSE
Chairman
United States Senator
EDWARD KENNEDY
DIANNE FEINSTEIN
United States
Senator United
States Senator
RUSS FEINGOLD
CHARLES E. SCHUMER
United States Senator
United States
Senator
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN
United States Senator
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