DOJ Official Admits to Boasting of Conservative Hires

Justice Department lawyer Bradley Schlozman (right) looked very much like a man about to announce that he would be soon be pursuing opportunities in the private sector. Testifying this afternoon before the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of an ongoing investigation into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and the politicization of Justice's career ranks, Schlozman told senators that as a top official in Justice's Civil Rights Division, he had bragged to others about hiring political conservatives to career positions in the division.

Schlozman said he did not take political loyalties into account when hiring career attorneys, which would be a violation of the Hatch Act. "I was not saying, 'I want conservatives,'" Schlozman said. However, when asked by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) whether he had boasted about bringing a large number of conservatives into the staff of the Civil Rights Division, Schlozman said: "I probably have made statements like that."

Schlozman also testified that he had advised several applicants for career positions to remove references to political organizations—such as the Republican National Lawyers Association—from their resumes. One of Schlozman's conservative hires to the division, Ty Clevenger, told McClatchy Newspapers earlier this spring that Schlozman had done so because he "wanted to make it look like it was apolitical." But today, Schlozman said he had advised the applicants to remove references to political affiliations on their resumes because it was inappropriate for career positions (Clevenger has filed an unrelated whistleblower complaint against the Justice Department).

In addition, Schlozman testified about charges he filed against four members of a left-leaning voter registration organization in Missouri just days before the 2006 election. Justice Department guidelines recommend that "most, if not all," investigations of an election-related allegation take place after the election so as not to affect the outcome. Shortly after the charges were announced, Missouri's Republican Party issued a press release accusing Democrats of trying to "steal" the election. Democrat Claire McCaskill narrowly defeated incumbent James Talent for a U.S. Senate seat in November.

Schlozman, who was interim U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, testified that he had brought the indictments before the election "at the direction of" a lower-ranking official in the Justice Department's public integrity section in Washington. "I didn't think this was going to have any effect" on the election, Schlozman said.

"Amazing," retorted Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

Leahy, who repeatedly interrupted Schlozman's testimony, and at times, shouted at him, at one point waived a red copy of the Justice Department's guidelines on investigating election-related offenses. "I tend to think you used this more as a doorstop," Leahy said.

Schlozman didn't get any relief from the grilling from Senate Republicans during the first part of the hearing, as none showed up.