Anonymous letter: Justice had political litmus test in hiring

Michael RostonPublished: Wednesday April 18, 2007

An anonymous group of Justice Department employees have written to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and accused staff under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales of implementing a political "litmus test" in determining which of the nation's top law school graduates would be hired as government attorneys.

"When division personnel staff later compared the remaining interviewees with the candidates struck from the list, one common denominator appeared repeatedly: most of those struck from the list had interned for a Hill Democrat, clerked for a Democratic judge, worked for a "liberal" or otherwise appeared to have "liberal" leanings," the anonymous staffers said in a letter faxed to the Committees on April 9.

In response, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) said he would investigate the matter.

"I take any accusations of undue politicization of career staff seriously," he wrote. "We have already identified concerns in Department's Civil Rights Division. These new accusations are clearly something we will want to consider as well."

A copy of the letter is provided below.