Christopher Chistie

January 15, 2008 - 7:55am

Calling it "inappropriate," ex-Attorney General says he wouldn't take monitor contract

Nicholas Katzenbach, right, at the University of Alabama in 1963, confronting Gov. George Wallace on segregation: Getty Images PhotoNicholas Katzenbach, right, at the University of Alabama in 1963, confronting Gov. George Wallace on segregation: Getty Images Photo

Former U.S. Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach thinks that former Attorney General John Ashcroft is a good man – but not necessarily deserving of a federal monitoring contract worth up to $58 million.

“He’s a pleasant enough man. I doubt that he was an editor of the law review or a Supreme Court clerk or something of that kind -- those are the kinds of standards I have,” said Katzenbach, who lives in Princeton and served as Attorney General under President Lyndon B. Johnson between 1965 and 1966.

The contract in question is a position Christopher J. Christie, New Jersey’s United States Attorney, gave Ashcroft, his former boss, monitoring Zimmer Holdings, a medical implant company that admitted paying kickbacks to doctors to use its products. By agreeing to take on a federal monitor and pay a $311 million settlement, the company avoided prosecution.

Although Katzenbach acknowledged that there could be circumstances to the appointment that he’s unfamiliar with, to him it looks political -- especially considering that the Justice Department should appear the most free of political considerations.

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