Ashcroft Recused Himself From Enron Case
``The amount of Lay's contribution was many times
greater than the maximum allowable contribution by
individuals to federal candidates, which is just $2,000,
and it appears to have been given in a manner that
many campaign finance experts believe thwarted the
intent of election laws,'' Waxman said.
Thursday January 10 4:01 PM ET
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S.
Justice Department , which is investigating Enron
Corp., said Thursday that Attorney
General John Ashcroft (news - web
sites) has removed himself from the
case after receiving campaign
contributions from the fallen
energy giant.
Enron and its employees
contributed $57,499 to campaign
committees for Ashcroft, previously
a Republican senator from
Missouri, in 1999-2000, according
to Holly Bailey, researcher for the
Center for Responsive Politics.
This included a $25,000 donation
from Enron chief Kenneth Lay, she
said. Most of the rest of the money
came from the corporation,
although there were small amounts
from other employees.
Ashcroft took the action the same
day U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman
(news), a Democrat from California,
sent him a letter saying Enron had
been one of Ashcroft's largest
contributors.
``The amount of Lay's contribution was many times
greater than the maximum allowable contribution by
individuals to federal candidates, which is just $2,000,
and it appears to have been given in a manner that
many campaign finance experts believe thwarted the
intent of election laws,'' Waxman said.
The Justice Department said in a three-sentence
statement, ''The attorney general has not been
involved in any aspect of initiating or conducting any
investigation involving Enron.''
The Justice Department, which confirmed the Enron
investigation late Wednesday, said ``any and all
responsibilities'' that would be handled by Ashcroft in
the case would be handled instead by Deputy Attorney
General Larry Thompson.
Once the world's largest energy trader, Enron slid in
mere weeks last year from Wall Street stardom to the
largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history on Dec. 2.
Enron was a major contributor to the election
campaign of President Bush (news - web sites), as well
as many other lawmakers, including Ashcroft. The
once politically powerful company also advised the
Bush administration on energy policy.
The Houston, Texas-based company, once ranked No.
7 on the Fortune 500 list of large corporations, is also
being investigated by five congressional committees,
the market-regulating Securities and Exchange
Commission (news - web sites) and the Labor
Department (news - web sites).
ASHCROFT ACTED FOR 'SAKE OF APPEARANCE'
A Justice Department official said Ashcroft removed
himself from the case ``for the sake of appearance.''
The official said government career ethics officers had
``looked at'' Ashcroft's situation.
Also removing himself from the case was Ashcroft's
chief of staff, David Ayers. He previously worked with
Ashcroft in Congress.
``After review of the relevant facts and law, the attorney
general and his chief of staff, David Ayres, have
recused themselves in all matters arising out of
allegations of misconduct by Enron Corp. due to the
totality of the circumstances of the relationship
between Enron and the attorney general,'' the
department said.
The official said Ashcroft and Ayres were the only
Justice Department officials to remove themselves so
far, but that the U.S. attorney's office in Houston was
expected to issue a statement later Thursday.
The Justice Department is setting up a task force to
handle the Enron investigation. It is expected to
include federal prosecutors from Houston, New York
and San Francisco, and members of the Justice
Department's fraud section.
Robert Bennett, a lawyer representing Enron, has said, ``To my knowledge
there's no evidence of wrongdoing yet. You have a business failure and you
have a lot of allegations. But allegations are not the same as evidence.''
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