(Washington, DC)- House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) issued the following statement after the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and Office Professional Responsibility (OPR) released its first report stemming from allegations related to the U.S. Attorney firings:
“Two important Justice Department watchdogs have resoundingly confirmed one of the central allegations of the Committee’s DOJ politicization investigation. Yet again, the Department has been putting politics where it doesn’t belong. The report concludes that under former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ tenure in 2006, several Department officials including Michael Elston violated federal law and Justice Department policy. We already know from the Committee testimony of Monica Goodling that she ‘crossed a line’ in hiring career attorneys as well.
“When it comes to the hiring of nonpartisan career attorneys, our system of justice should not be corrupted by partisan politics. It appears the politicization at Justice was so pervasive that even interns had to pass a partisan litmus test.
“With these disclosures, it becomes even more important to get to the bottom of this entire matter. I call on Attorney General Michael Mukasey to immediately implement all of the recommendations in this report and I eagerly await the conclusion of the remaining OIG/OPR investigations into this alleged wrongdoing. In the meantime, the Judiciary Committee continues to press the White House about its role in this matter.”
