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Congress is looking into the decision by the United States attorney for New Jersey, Christopher Christie, to hand former Attorney General John Ashcroft a hugely lucrative job monitoring a wayward company.
The issue, however, is larger than any one appointment. Congress should conduct a broader inquiry into prosecutors' selection of richly rewarded monitors and require that appointments are made based on merit.
United States attorneys are supposed to be nonpartisan and beyond favoritism. But we have already seen how federal prosecutors appointed by the Bush administration used their offices to help Republicans win elections. Congress needs to ensure that they are not using their positions to throw patronage to friends and political allies.
The Ashcroft appointment came in a "deferred prosecution agreement," a fast-growing arrangement ripe for abuse. Rather than file criminal charges against corporations, federal prosecutors - looking to dispose of cases efficiently and to avoid damaging companies needlessly - increasingly are striking deals. These agreements are done without court supervision and sometimes in secret.
In this particular case, Mr. Christie arranged for a medical supply company accused of fraud to hire his former boss to monitor its activities for a payment between $28 million and $52 million. There was no competitive bidding. If Mr. Christie runs for elected office in the future, Mr. Ashcroft could be an important supporter and fund-raiser. This isn't the only time Mr. Christie's appointment of a monitor has raised questions.
When he struck a deal in a 2005 case involving Bristol-Myers Squibb, the company was required to make a donation to Seton Hall University's law school, Mr. Christie's alma mater. In another case, Mr. Christie reached across the country to bestow a high-paid monitoring deal on Debra Wong Yang, a former federal prosecutor from Los Angeles who had close ties to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Mr. Ashcroft has reportedly agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the monitoring appointment. The committee should insist on hearing from both him and Mr. Christie, and it should inquire into other lucrative appointments made to former Justice Department insiders.
Congress also needs to reform the system. Representative Frank Pallone Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, has introduced a bill that would require that federal judges or magistrates choose monitors for deferred prosecution agreements from a pool of qualified firms. It would also require that monitors be paid according to a predetermined fee schedule set by the court.
United States attorneys have traditionally played an important role in rooting out patronage and corruption. Congress has to ensure that the prosecutors charged with stamping out these practices do not engage in them.
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