DOJ: Former aide broke law in hiring scandal

[formercia]

Source: Yahoo



By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 33 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A new Justice Department report concludes that politics illegally influenced the hiring of career prosecutors and immigration judges, and largely lays the blame on top aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
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Monday's report singles out the department's former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, for violating federal law and Justice Department policy by discriminating against job applicants who weren't Republican or conservative loyalists.


--snip--

However, Justice investigators said that Goodling, at least, may lose her license to practice law as a result of the findings.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/justice_politics

---

..and they gave her immunity.

[tularetom]

1. She'll turn up as a repub newsbimbo on faux and other cable propaganda outlets

[notadmblnd]

2. and she did this all on her own without Gonzo's knowlege

:sarcasm:

[saigon68]

4. Standard Operating Procedure

[formercia]

5. A professional courtesy

from all the other 'lawyers' in Congress.

We need to start sending 'lawyers' to prison, not giving them immunity.

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. Dog bites man.

[Xipe Totec]

6. Does she have to return the Cracker Jack box too?

or just the toy diploma she found inside?

[Solly Mack]

7. wonder what her pay-off will be

for poor dear Gonzales not being aware of what was going on...

[Wizard777]

8. "Lying to Congress is a crime." Bull Shit! If it were Bush & Cheney would be in jail.

They keep saying it's a crime to lie to Congress. But they never go after the liars.

[kas125]

9. Didn't everyone see this coming when she was

given immunity from prosecution so she'd testify?

[seafan]

10. So, where's Monica?

We at DU have known about this loyal little hairdo for a while.



DOJ: Former aide broke law in hiring scandal



Monica Goodling


By LARA JAKES JORDAN
July 28, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new Justice Department report concludes that politics illegally influenced the hiring of career prosecutors and immigration judges, and largely lays the blame on top aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Monday's report singles out the department's former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, for violating federal law and Justice Department policy by discriminating against job applicants who weren't Republican or conservative loyalists.

"Goodling improperly subjected candidates for certain career positions to the same politically based evaluation she used on candidates for political positions," the report concludes.
In one instance, Justice investigators found, Goodling objected to hiring an assistant prosecutor in Washington because "judging from his resume, he appeared to be a liberal Democrat."
In another, she rejected an experienced terror prosecutor to work on counterterror issues at a Justice Department headquarters office "because of his wife's political affiliations," the report found.

.....

The federal government makes a distinction between so-called "career" appointees and "political" appointees, and the long-accepted custom has been that career workers are not hired on the basis of political affiliation or allegiance.
The 140-page report does not indicate whether Goodling or former Gonzales chief of staff Kyle Sampson could face any charges. None of those involved in the discriminatory hiring still work at Justice, meaning they will avoid any department penalties.
However, Justice investigators said that Goodling, at least, may lose her license to practice law as a result of the findings.

Gonzales was largely unaware of the hiring decisions by two of his most trusted aides. The report said his aides' decisions weeded out Democrats and that Goodling also rejected at least one lesbian job applicant.
The report marks the culmination of a yearlong investigation by Justice's Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility into whether Republican politics were driving hiring polices at the nation's premier law enforcement agency whose appointees are expected to be selected on a nonpartisan basis.

.....

A bit more detail here:

.....

Among those that were implicated in the report were former Chief of Staff to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Kyle Sampson; White House Liason Jan Williams, and EOUSA Director John Nowacki-- who is still at the department.

In sum, we concluded that the evidence showed that Goodling violated both federal law and Department policy, and therefore committed misconduct, when she considered political or ideological affiliations in hiring decisions for candidates for career positions within the Department. In particular, the evidence showed that she considered political or ideological affiliations in deciding several waiver requests from interim U.S. Attorneys, in promoting several candidates for career positions, and in disapproving a candidate for an EOUSA career SES position...

In sum, the evidence showed that Sampson, Williams, and Goodling violated federal law and Department policy, and Sampson and Goodling committed misconduct, by considering political and ideological affiliations in soliciting and selecting IJs, which are career positions protected by the civil service laws.

Monica Goodling says she was given the green light to hire immigration judges based on their political qualifications., May 25, 2007


Monica Goodling named many of her unqualified pals as IMMIGRATION JUDGES., February 14, 2008


All the president's women.... are enablers. (Pix heavy), July 11, 2007


Goodling to Sampson: Have DOJ pick Tim Griffin for political position, then detail him in as an interim., May 26, 2007


Arkansas Times editorial blasts Tim Griffin's brand of GOP criminality, May 30, 2007


Tim Griffin's 2004 involvement in caging Jacksonville, FL minority voters now under investigation, June 20, 2007



All of these Bush operatives form a nice, tight package of corruption, deceit and robbery.


Amazing how they stay out of prison.

[formercia]

12. Don't forget Victoria Toensing

who Monica used to work for and was the headhunter that supplied her with the 'talent' for those positions.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x690913

What Victoria thinks of us....

[seafan]

13. You are right. Her picture is in the "All the president's women are enablers" link.

All of these people are traitors.

[VWolf]

14. It's simple, really

Remember her testimony?

"I may have broken the law, but I didn't mean to"

Jeez, haven't you ever argued your way out of a traffic ticket using that defense? I do it all the time, and the cop ALWAYS says "Thanks for being honest, you may go now"
:sarcasm:

[formercia]

15. Sorry, Senator, I didn't mean to murder the Constitution,

after all, it's only a bit of paper. May I go now? My car is in short term parking. I didn't expect to be here long.

[formercia]

16. Interesting caption on Victoria Toensing's picture:

Former Chief Counsel
Senate Intelligence Cmte. 1981-1984

I bet she was running interference for Ollie North and came up with the plan granting him immunity.

No wonder nothing gets done in Congress, with all of these right-wing reactionaries running the show.

[Gregorian]

11. Heck of a good job there, Goodling.

Give that woman a raise, or a medal of honor. Or maybe a pardon.

8 years of hell.

[superconnected]

17. DOJ officials broke law in promoting partisan hiring practices

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Former Justice Department officials broke the law by letting Bush administration politics dictate the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, according to an internal investigation released Monday.


For nearly two years, top advisers to then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales discriminated against applicants for career jobs who weren't Republican or conservative loyalists, the Justice report found.

At times, their search for GOP activists delayed filling judgeships and threatened to clog immigration courts, the report said.

The federal government makes a distinction between "career" and "political" appointees, and it's a violation of civil service laws and Justice Department policy to hire career employees on the basis of political affiliation or allegiance.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/justice_politics

[Xipe Totec]

18. Realy?

Duh!

[annabanana]

19. Round them up and throw them in jail!, , , , Set bail at millions.

(a girl can dream, can't she?)

[indepat]

20. No surprises, nothing here, move on for a compelling argument could be made that this administration

has been a vast criminal enterprise from the git-go starting on day-one. :P