Investigation Of Goodling’s Partisan Hiring Expands, May Net Gonzales

[kpete]

Investigation Of Goodling’s Partisan Hiring Expands, May Net Gonzales

The Justice Department has broadened an internal investigation into whether Monica Goodling and other department aides “improperly took into account political considerations in hiring employees.”

Specifically, investigators want to learn more about Goodling’s admission this week that she had “considered party affiliation in screening applicants to become immigration judges.” The New York Times notes:

Some 75 of the 226 immigration judges have been appointed during the Bush administration. Forty-nine of them were appointed during the tenure of Mr. Gonzales, and it was during part of that period that Ms. Goodling was involved.

.............

Unlike federal judges, immigration judges are civil service employees, to be appointed by the attorney general based on professional qualifications, not their politics.

The process for selecting immigration judges is “murky.” While there is “a formal application process for immigration judges” run by Executive Office of Immigration Review, the attorney general “has the option to pre-empt the formal vetting process and directly hire a judge of his choosing.” This may explain why a Legal Times investigation last June found:

Among the 19 immigration judges hired since 2004: Francis Cramer, the former campaign treasurer for New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg; James Nugent, the former vice chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party; and Chris Brisack, a former Republican Party county chairman from Texas who had served on the state library commission under then-Gov. George W. Bush.”

As the Los Angeles Times notes, “The internal Justice Department investigation, although focused on Goodling, could turn up embarrassing information about Gonzales’ management practices and what, if anything, he knew about the role that politics played in hiring employees protected by civil service laws.”


more at:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/25/gonzales-goodling-immigration/

[Hubert Flottz]

1. Slimy and Slick...

There's scum under every rock in the DOJ..."In God We Trust"...it don't mean nothin' anymore. Bush was going to bring honor and dignitude back to Washington...that was his firstest and largest lie to the American people and he hasn't told the truth since then...

"IMPEACH THE LIAR, NOBODY IN AMERICA IS ABOVE THE LAW!" That's what the GOPers said about someone else who lied to the country.

[Hubert Flottz]

2. BTW Kpete

Have I told you lately what a fine job you do?

Well, I'm telling you today! You are a Fine DUer and I'm very glad you're here. I salute you and your tireless effort to find the facts.

:toast: Have a great weekend...

[kpete]

3. thank you

and you have a great weekend as well.

In spite of recent set backs, the truth is still the answer that leads us forward to a better place, a better country.

kpete

[aquart]

4. Second that.

Have a wonderful holiday, Kpete. You've more than earned it.

[rwork]

5. kpete

Just to let you know I appreciate your efforts also.I always read your posts. Please keep digging. It will probably be some seemingly bizarre crime that brings them down.

[dancingme]

6. Goodling said she was assured there was an opinion

but she never bothered to read the opinion - or research it herself? What a lawyer!!

In her oral testimony, Goodling specified that "concerns were raised about political criteria for such employment decisions as a result of some litigation, after which "the Civil Division came to a different conclusion" from that allegedly reached by OLC.

There is no published OLC opinion on this question. And according to an article by Rick Schmitt of the L.A. Times, a DOJ spokesperson on Thursday said that no such OLC opinion exists, and further denied outright Goodling's testimony that the hiring of immigration judges was frozen after Civil Division concerns: "'There is no disagreement within the department, including between the Civil Division and the Office of Legal Counsel, about whether the civil-service laws apply to the appointment of immigration judges,' said Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman. 'They do apply.'"

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/05/curious-case-of-goodling-and.html

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003298.php

[L. Coyote]

7. Was Goodling questioning so circumscribed to limit her immunity grant?

Does her immunity apply only to the areas she discusses with the committee?

If so...? Did Repubs plant questions to expand her immunity to areas of known criminality?