Ashcroft Testifies: What Conflict of Interest?

[babylonsister]

Ashcroft: no conflict on monitoring deal

Former Attorney General Denies Conflict in Contract for Monitoring White-Collar Defendant

ANGELA DELLI SANTI
AP News

Mar 11, 2008 16:22 EST



Former Attorney General John Ashcroft denied any conflict of interest Tuesday in getting a multimillion-dollar contract to monitor a corporation accused of bribing surgeons.

Ashcroft bristled at the suggestion from a House Judiciary subcommittee chairman, Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., that he got "a back room, sweetheart deal" from the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, a one-time underling.

"This hearing cost far more in tax dollars than my monitorship will cost, because it did not cost taxpayers one thin dime," Ashcroft responded to questioning by the panel. "There is not a conflict, there is not an appearance of a conflict."

Christopher Christie, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey and formerly a subordinate of Ashcroft, picked the former attorney general last September to be an outside monitor of Zimmer Holdings Inc. of Warsaw, Ind.

Zimmer, a manufacturer of replacement hips and knees, was one of four companies that agreed to pay fines and hire outside monitors under deferred prosecution agreements settling charges over alleged kickbacks to doctors.

Zimmer agreed to pay Ashcroft's law-lobbying firm between $28 million and $52 million to monitor the company for 18 months and report the results to the government.

more...

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2008/03/ashcroft_no_conflict_on_monito_1.php

[AndyA]

1. Let the Eagle soar...

...just as long as it drops a load of money in Ashcroft's nest.

:eyes:

And the very fact that this is an issue shows that there is, indeed, the appearance of a conflict.

What an asshole.