House panel pursues hearing on Christie deal with Ashcroft

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BY JOHN P. MARTIN
Star-Ledger Staff
A congressional committee that has questioned U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie's appointment of former Attorney General John Ashcroft to a multimillion-dollar contract yesterday postponed a hearing on the issue after it was unable to get assurances that either Christie or Ashcroft would testify.
The decision to reschedule next Tuesday's hearing by members of the House Judiciary Committee followed a flurry of behind-the-scenes requests and correspondence over the testimony. Melanie Roussell, a spokeswoman for the committee, said it needed more time to accommodate witnesses, but would not elaborate.
No new date was scheduled, but three sources said the committee hoped to hold the hearing within a few weeks, possibly March 11.
A spokesman for Ashcroft said the former attorney general was willing to appear before the committee, but first wants to resolve the timing and scope of his testimony.
"Mr. Ashcroft has very clearly expressed his willingness to testify," the spokesman, Mark Corallo, said last night.
Christie, the top federal law enforcement officer in New Jersey, has said he would testify if directed by the Justice Department.
But the department apparently has already made its decision. A source who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations said department officials had asked David Nahmias, a former senior prosecutor in Washington and now U.S. attorney in Atlanta, to prepare to testify at the hearing in Christie's place.
A department spokesman, Paul Bresson, declined comment.
The subcommittee on commercial and administrative law had called the hearing to explore what members had said was a troubling trend: an increase in out-of-court settlements between federal prosecutors and corporations under investigation.
The settlements, called deferred prosecutions, often are negotiated in private and end with the government appointing private lawyers as monitors to make sure the companies follow the law and terms of their agreements.
In September, Christie announced a $311 million settlement with five medical device manufacturers that had been under investigation for giving kickbacks to orthopedic surgeons. Each also agreed to hire a corporate monitor. Ashcroft's contract calls for one of the companies, Indiana-based Zim mer Holdings, to pay him between $27 million and $52 million for 18 months of work.
None of the other companies or monitors has disclosed their fees.
Plans for the hearing -- and its delay -- underscored a larger issue of how responsive Ashcroft and the Justice Department choose to be with a committee inquiry that some have complained is rooted in partisan politics.
Christie, a onetime Republican fundraiser, is considered a leading contender for the GOP nomination if he runs for New Jersey governor next year. Ashcroft, a prominent conservative, was attorney general in President Bush's first term.
The scrutiny of Ashcroft's contract has been spearheaded by the Democrats who control the committee and by two Democratic congressmen from New Jersey, Reps. Frank Pallone and Bill Pascrell.
Pallone, who has introduced legislation that would impose new oversight on deferred prosecutions, said yesterday that Christie and Ashcroft should testify.
"If they feel that what they're doing is proper, there's no reason they shouldn't come and voluntarily explain why they think what they are doing is proper," he said.