In Friday's Washington Post Dan Eggen and I examine two expanding fronts of the Justice Department's internal investigation into Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and his top subordinates.
Justice's Inspector General and its Office of Professional Responsibility acknowledged they are examining Gonzales's recent congressional testimony for potential lies or false statements under oath, but in addition we unearthed a key document that serves as a mini-road map for a different portion of the now sprawling probe. This part of the investigation is examining whether Gonzales's top aides improperly and possibly illegally used political considerations in the hiring process at the Justice Department.
A cover letter [PDF] and 12-page questionnaire [PDF] sent out by IG-OPR investigators went to hundreds of people who were interviewed by four top aides to Gonzales over a 40-month period, from Jan. 1, 2004 through this past April. That's a much longer timeframe than was previously known to be under inquiry by Justice's investigators, who began this spring by examining the propriety of the firing of nine U.S. attorneys last year and now have a multi-faceted probe on their hands.
...
• The investigators are particularly focused on whether Goodling and other Justice officials were using personal political questions when making hiring decisions. Investigators want to know if interviewees were asked:
- to name "your favorite president, legislator, public figure, or Supreme Court justice"
- "what kind of conservative you were (law and order; social; fiscal)"
- what was "your position on the war on terror"
