John Conyers

WASHINGTON -- United States Attorney Christopher Christie didn’t attend today’s Congressional hearing, but his presence loomed over the proceedings.

The hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law was broken up into two panels: the first consisted of former Attorney General John Ashcroft, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias, University of Virginia Law Professor Brandon Garrett and attorneys Timothy Dickinson and George Terwilliger III. The second panel consisted of New Jersey Democrats Bill Pascrell and Frank Pallone.

Republican members of the committee stressed that deferred prosecution agreements were vital to keeping companies that employ thousands solvent, and noted that monitors were not paid with taxpayer dollars. Democrats questioned whether corporations were getting a separate form of justice from blue collar criminals.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft will testify at a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, March 11, regarding a multi-million dollar federal monitoring contract he received after he left the Bush Administration.

U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wants congressional hearings on deferred prosecution agreements, like the one that netted former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft a federal monitor agreement worth as much as $52 million over the next eighteen months.

“I think that’s absolutely essential.  I think this administration has played fast and loose with the public dollars,” said Hoyer.

At the request of Rep. Bill Pascrell, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said earlier this month that he was likely to hold hearings on U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s decision to award lucrative no-bid monitor contracts to Ashcroft and others.

U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie
CONGRESS COULD ISSUE SUBPOENAS, HOLD HEARINGS

In a direct communication with U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey today, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee requested details of federal monitor contracts negotiated by New Jersey's United States Attorney, Christopher J. Christie, and said that if documents are not turned over to them quickly, they could issue subpoenas to obtain them, according to a source with knowledge of the Judiciary panels actions.

And House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers says he is likely to hold hearings on the need for federal oversight of deferred prosecution agreements.

Christie, a leading candidate for the 2009 Republican nomination for Governor, awarded former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft a federal monitor contract worth up to $52 million over the next eighteen months, and has given out lucrative contracts to several other politically connected lawyers, according to published reports.

The New York Times reported today that the Justice Department is conducting an internal review of deferred prosecution agreements, though a spokesman for the department said the Justice Department has been having ongoing discussions about the selection of federal monitors for several months and was not prompted by reports of Christie's deal with Ashcroft, according to Peter A. Carr, a spokesman for the Department of Justice in Washington. "There is no inquiry into that selection. Likewise, the consideration of guidance was not prompted by the actions of any U.S. Attorney," Carr said in a statement released today.

In a letter to Mukasey, Conyers chastised the Justice Department for failing to respond to letters from at least two Congressmen,and said that a report in today's New York Times "reinforces a concern over the lack of real oversight and transparency of deferred prosecution agreements."

"These agreements, which directly affect billions of dollars in corporate business as well as the livelihoods of millions of Americans employed by these corporations, have been completely shielded from review by either the Legislative or Judicial branches of the government," Conyers wrote in a letter also signed by Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law Chairwoman Linda Sanchez, and Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. of New Jersey.