Ashcroft agrees to testify on monitors

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

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, including a New Jersey deal in which Ashcroft stood to make millions of dollars.

A House Judiciary Committee subcommittee announced the agreement with Ashcroft on Monday, the day before the committee was to consider authorizing its chairman to issue him a subpoena.

That 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.

Read more: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--usattorneys-overs0225feb25,0,5950146.story

[babylonsister]

1. Wow. This is so contrary to a former member of the * evil empire

that I'm stunned, in a good way. And this should be good.

[gratuitous]

6. Hope for the best, I say

But I have a feeling that we'll be in for another round of how many variations on "I don't recall" or "I don't remember" Ashcroft can trot out for the committee. I wonder if they'll go through that tedious and messy "swearing in" ceremony? Maybe John will regale them with another rendition (oops!) of "The Eagle is Sore."

[Canuckistanian]

2. Whoa. This should be interesting

Interesting to see if Ashcroft has some tales to tell or if he's in full CYA "legacy" mode.

I do admit to a certain respect for him in the "Hospital Room" affair.

[Gman]

3. Same here

Some respect in a puzzled sort of way. Then I think about the statue with the naked breasts and the cloth that covered them up and I move on.

[Liberty Belle]

4. One can have integrity and still be a prude.

[Festivito]

5. What are they up to now?

Wants to walk out without having pictures of it. Avoiding pesky questions.

Needs too much makeup.

TELEPROMPTERS.

Local rules and definitions, e.g. Sexual relations.
(I always thought that was pretty smart of Bill, and he'd have won had there not been so many RepubliCON ops within the press and within the Dems.)

No chance of nudes behind him in photo ops.

No one standing around to say, hey, weren't you the guy handing out white-supremacist literature around polling places years back?

Or, weren't you the in-charge guy who destroyed his own AND ONLY terrorism prosecution?

Would have to fly on common aircraft.

I just wonder.

[happydreams]

7. His wife stuck her tongue at

Alberto and Co. when they visited him in the hospital.

[Supersedeas]

8. Ashcroft Gonzalez and Muckasey -- what a trio