The Justice Department is conducting an internal inquiry into the process used to award lucrative no-bid federal monitor contracts after U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie gave a deal worth as much as $52 million to former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, according to a New York Times report.
Rep. Frank Pallone wrote to Attorney General Michael Mukasey last November, following published reports that Christie had given contracts to Ashcroft, two other former Bush administration officials, and to former state Attorney General Davis Samson. Rep. Bill Pascrell is pushing for a congressional hearing on the federal monitor issue.
There have been no accusations that Christie broke any laws, a Justice Department official told the newspaper, but Mukasey, who succeeded Alberto Gonazalez as the nation’s top law enforcement official last fall, is “concerned about the appearance of favoritism.”
