Ashcroft to Testify on Monitor Contracts
TRENTON, N.J. — Former Attorney General John Ashcroft has agreed to appear at a federal hearing looking into no-bid contracts he and others received to monitor out-of-court corporate settlements.
A House Judiciary Committee subcommittee announced the agreement with Ashcroft in Washington, D.C., on Monday, the day before the committee was to consider authorizing its chairman to issue him a subpoena.
The committee hearing was hastily postponed after Ashcroft said he would voluntarily testify.
The former attorney general is considered a key witness in the inquiry into lucrative federal monitoring contracts awarded by federal prosecutors to hand-picked monitors to oversee deferred prosecutions.
The House hearing was prompted, in part, by complaints from two New Jersey congressmen after Christopher Christie, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, awarded a contract said to be worth $27 million or more to Ashcroft to monitor a medical device maker that had entered a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors.
Such agreements have been used increasingly by the Justice Department in recent years.
The House hearing is among several inquiries now under way in nation's capital regarding the standards for creating monitorships and selecting monitors.
Christie, who has defended the practice as a method to correct corporate misbehavior while preserving jobs, was once Ashcroft's subordinate. Christie apparently will not have to testify.
Judiciary Committee spokeswoman Melanie Roussell said the Justice Department would send a U.S. attorney from Georgia to testify rather than Christie.
Christie did not return after-hours messages seeking comment.
Christie appointed Ashcroft in September as monitor for Zimmer Holdings Inc., of Warsaw, Ind., one of five makers of replacement hips and knees that agreed to pay $310 million and accept federal monitors to settle concerns over doctor kickbacks.
Ashcroft's Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, The Ashcroft Group LLC, stands to make from $27 million to $52 million over 18 months, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Monitorships are being investigated by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, an agency spokesman has said.
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ANGELA DELLI SANTI | February 25, 2008 11:05 PM EST |