Conyers threatens perjury charges against Gonzales

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) on Monday said he would consider perjury charges against former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and two other former senior officials in the Department of Justice (DoJ).

Conyers was reacting to a new internal DoJ Inspector General report on the politicization of hiring practices at the department.

{mosads}In a joint statement with Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), Conyers said that the DoJ Inspector General’s report showed that “that the cost to our nation of these apparent crimes was severe.” Qualified individuals “were rejected for key positions” in the fight against terrorism “for no reason other than political whim,” the statement said.

He said his committee would investigate whether Gonzales; his former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson; or former DoJ White House liaison Monica Goodling committed perjury in sworn testimony delivered before the committee last year.

The internal DoJ report concluded that Goodling inappropriately considered political and ideological leanings in the hiring process for assistant United States attorneys.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said he was “disturbed” by the latest report’s findings and stressed that his office would continue working to ensure that the improprieties outlined in the report would not happen again.

“Over the course of the last year and a half, the Justice Department has made many institutional changes to remedy the problems discussed in today’s report, and the report itself commends these changes,” Mukasey said. “It is crucial that the American people have confidence in the propriety of what we do and how we do it, and I will continue my efforts to make certain they can have such confidence.”