Comment Of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),

Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee,

On Inspector General Report
On Department Of Justice Intern And Honors Programs

June 24, 2008

 

“Today’s troubling report from the Inspector General confirms what our oversight efforts in this Congress have uncovered about the politicization of hiring practices at the Department.  It confirms our findings and our fears that the same senior Department officials involved with the firing of United States Attorneys were injecting improper political motives into the process of hiring young attorneys.  I suspect further reports from the Inspector General will continue to shed light on the extent to which the Bush administration has allowed politics to affect – and infect – the Department’s priorities, from law enforcement to the operation of the crucial Civil Rights Division to the Department’s hiring practices. 

 

“This report and those to follow will serve as a reminder to future presidents – and future congresses – that never again should blatant partisanship be made the crux of the Justice Department’s hiring practices.  The Department of Justice is not the president’s legal defense team.  It houses our nation’s top law enforcement officers, and it has been crippled in the last seven years.  We began the first real oversight efforts of this administration that has led to our uncovering the truth about this administration’s efforts to infuse partisan politics into our nation’s top law enforcement agency.”

 

# # # # #