Mukasey will not prosecute in DoJ hiring scandal

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday that the Department of Justice would not pursue criminal charges against former employees implicated in an internal investigation on politicized hiring practices.

“Where there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing, we vigorously investigate it,” Mukasey said in a speech at the American Bar Association. “And where there is enough evidence to charge someone with a crime, we vigorously prosecute. But not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime.”

{mosads}Last month, a report by the DoJ inspector general found substantial evidence that two key aides to Mukasey’s predecessor Alberto Gonzales — former Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson and former White House liaison Monica Goodling — improperly vetted applicants for career positions at DoJ for their political leanings. That report followed a June investigation that found evidence of similar misconduct in the hiring practices for DoJ’s Summer Law Intern Program and Honors Program.

Mukasey said the wrongdoing outlined in the two reports did not merit criminal charges because it constituted “only violations of the civil service laws.”

He acknowledged, however, that the two reports underscored systemic failures at the department.

“There was a failure of supervision by senior officials in the department,” he admitted. “And there was a failure on the part of some employees to cry foul when they were aware, or should have been aware, of problems.”

Nevertheless, Mukasey insisted that his office took steps toward addressing the problems outlined in the two reports even before they were released, and touted DoJ’s prompt implementation of the inspector general’s additional recommendations.

Mukasey said all DoJ personnel involved in the hiring process for career positions would be forced to undergo mandatory training, and that political appointees would be excluded from involvement in subsequent hirings.

Mukasey also detailed a number of additional reforms not recommended in the two reports. First, he said, candidates for the attorney general’s Honors Program who were unfairly excluded from consideration will be encouraged to apply for available vacancies at DoJ. Additionally, Mukasey highlighted the steps he took in December 2007, shortly after being confirmed as attorney general, to narrow the list of DoJ officials allowed to communicate with the White House about internal affairs.

The attorney general promised he would resist calls to fire or reassign current DoJ employees brought in during the period outlined in the two reports, saying that they could not be blamed for the circumstances of their hiring.

“There is a principle of equity that we all learned in the schoolyard, and that remains as true today as when we first heard it: two wrongs do not make a right,” he said.