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Thursday, May 14, 2009 01:37 PM
Gonzales
Update!
Gonzales Aides Broke Laws in Hiring, Report Concludes
Senior aides to former Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales broke the law by using politics to guide their
hiring decisions for a wide range of important department positions,
slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the
department’s credibility and independence, an internal report
concluded Monday.
The report, prepared by the Justice Department’s inspector general and
its internal ethics office, singles out for particular criticism
Monica Goodling, a young lawyer from the
Republican National Committee who rose quickly through the ranks of
the department to become a top aide to Mr. Gonzales.
Ms. Goodling, who testified before Congress in May 2007 at the height of
the scandal over the firings of nine
United States attorneys, introduced politics into the hiring process
in a systematic way that constituted illegal misconduct, the report
found.
Last month, the inspector general,
Glenn A. Fine, released a separate report that found a similar
pattern of politicized hiring at the Justice Department in reviewing
applications from young lawyers for the honors and intern programs. The
new report released Monday goes much further, however, in documenting
pervasive evidence of political hiring for some of the department’s most
senior career, apolitical positions, including
immigration judges and assistant United States attorneys.
The inspector general’s investigation found that Ms. Goodling and a
handful of other senior aides to Mr. Gonzales developed a system of
using in-person interviews and Internet searches to screen out
candidates who might be too liberal and to identify candidates seen as
pro-Republican and supportive of President Bush.
When interviewed by the inspector general, Mr. Gonzales said he was not
aware that Ms. Goodling and other aides were using political criteria in
their decisions for career positions. Mr. Gonzales resigned last summer
in the face of mounting accusations from congressional Democrats that
politics had corrupted the department.
His successor, Attorney General
Michael Mukasey, said in a statement Monday after the report’s
release that he was disturbed by their findings that improper political
considerations were used in hiring decisions relating to some career
employees.
“I have said many times, both to members of the public and to Department
employees, it is neither permissible nor acceptable to consider
political affiliations in the hiring of career Department employees,” he
said. “And I have acted, and will continue to act, to ensure that my
words are translated into reality so that the conduct described in this
report does not occur again at the Department.”
He said that over the course of the last year and a half, the Justice
Department has made institutional changes to remedy the problems
discussed in today’s report.
“It is crucial that the American people have confidence in the propriety
of what we do and how we do it,” he said, “and I will continue my
efforts to make certain they can have such confidence.”
An attorney for Ms. Goodling, John Dowd, did not return a phone message
Monday.
In her position as White House liaison for the Justice Department, Ms.
Goodling was involved in hiring lawyers for both political appointments
and non-political, career positions. Regardless of the type of position,
the report said, Ms. Goodling would run through the same batch of
questions, asking candidates about their political philosophies, why
they wanted to serve President Bush, and who, aside from Mr. Bush, they
admired as public servants. Sometimes, Ms. Goodling would ask: “Why are
you a Republican?”
Such questioning was allowed for candidates to political appointments,
but was clearly banned under both civil service law and the Justice
Department’s own internal policies, the inspector general said. Ms.
Goodling’s questioning also generated complaints from one senior
official who believed it was improper, long before the issue became a
public controversy following the firings of nine United States
attorneys. The inspector general concluded that Ms. Goodling knew that
questioning applicants to career positions about their political beliefs
was improper.
In one case, for instance, Ms. Goodling slowed the hiring of a
prosecutor in the United States attorney’s office in Washington, D.C.,
for a vacancy because she said she was concerned that he was a “liberal
Democrat.” After the United States attorney, Jeffrey Taylor, complained
to her supervisors, he was allowed to hire the candidate anyway.
And in another case, colleagues said that Ms. Goodling refused to extend
the appointment of a female prosecutor because she believed the lawyer
was involved in a lesbian relationship with her supervisor, according to
the report.
And in another case cited by the inspector general, Ms. Goodling blocked
the hiring of an experienced prosecutor for a senior counter-terrorism
position because his wife was active in Democratic politics. The
candidate was regarded as “head and shoulders above the other
candidates” in the view of officials in the executive office of United
States attorneys, but they were forced to take a candidate with much
less experience because he was deemed acceptable to Ms. Goodling.
In forwarding a résumé in 2006 from a lawyer who was working for the
Federalist Society, Ms. Goodling sent an e-mail message to the head of
the Office of Legal Counsel, Steven Bradbury, saying: “Am attaching a
résumé for a young, conservative female lawyer.”
Ms. Goodling interviewed the woman herself for possible positions and
wrote in her notes such phrases as “pro-God in public life,” and
“pro-marriage, anti-civil union.” She was eventually hired as a career
prosecutor.
Ms. Goodling also conducted extensive searches on the Internet to glean
the political or ideological leanings of candidates for career
positions, the report found. She and other Justice Department
supervisors would look for key phrases like “abortion,” “homosexual,”
“guns,” or “Florida re-count” to get information on a candidate’s
political leanings.
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![Alberto Gonzales Heckled at University of Florida Speech [VIDEO]](http://www.alternet.org/images/managed/media_gonzoheckle.jpg "http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ZT95t1kwU9z%2F%2F2jfrDl2RVhAELxS8QBv")
The Senate could hold a no-confidence vote as early as today. The resolution is non-binding and symbolic, but it will put Senators on record and send a strong message to President Bush. Make sure your Senators know you want them to support the no-confidence vote:
Senator Gordon Smith (202) 224-3753
Senator Ron Wyden (202) 224-5244
This vote puts us one step closer to removing Alberto Gonzales and restoring integrity to the U.S. Department of Justice. But George Bush is still blocking the way. This morning the President continued to stand by his man, saying: "They can have their votes of no-confidence but it's not going to make the determination about who serves in my government." Call your Senators today. Tell them they have the power to challenge President Bush and remove Alberto Gonzales. After you call, sign the Impeach Gonzales petition that will be delivered to your representative in the next few days: http://www.ImpeachGonzales.org
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A growing number of the jurists have little or no experience in that area of law. Some have strong Republican resumes.
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