Right Web

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John David Ashcroft, a former Republican governor and senator from Missouri and high-profile member of the conservative judicial group Federalist Society, served as U.S. attorney general during George W. Bush's first term in the White House. As the Washington Post put it: "Ashcroft was a failed presidential candidate and a Missouri senator who had just lost reelection to a dead man when Bush picked him to become attorney general in 2001" (May 20, 2007). After his often-controversial tenure as the nation's leading law enforcement official, Ashcroft joined the teaching staff at Regent University, which is sponsored by Christian Right leader Pat Robertson. (Ashcroft's wife, Janet Ashcroft, serves on the board of trustees of Patrick Henry College, also a rightist Christian institution.) In May 2005, Ashcroft founded the lobbying firm Ashcroft Group, which advises "clients on homeland security, law enforcement, and other issues involving business and government " and provides "strategic consulting, crisis counseling, and security and internal investigative services to corporations and other organizations" (USA Today, May 2, 2005). According to The Hill, one of Ashcroft Group's first clients was the Israeli government (The Hill, May 3, 2006).

The New York Times reported: "For corporations seeking contracts from the growing homeland security budget, Mr. Ashcroft promises to draw on his central role in the war on terror and in helping set up the Department of Homeland Security. For companies in trouble with regulators, he says his experience in cracking down on corporate corruption can provide valuable insights. ...

"Still, some critics find his move from the nation's chief law enforcement officer to K Street, the heart of the lobbying world, to be as undignified as it is unusual.

"Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, said that because Mr. Ashcroft had worked only in government, 'he cannot claim to have any business expertise. What is he selling,' Ms. Brian asked, 'other than connections and knowledge of how to game the system from being attorney general?'

"One of Mr. Ashcroft's newest clients is ChoicePoint, a broker of consumer data that is increasingly being used by the government to keep tabs on people within the United States. The company received millions of dollars in contracts from the Justice Department under Mr. Ashcroft as part of the war on terror and has now hired him to find more" (New York Times, March 17, 2006).

In November 2007, Ashcroft Group formed an alliance with Communications Equity Associates (CEA) to form AshcroftCEA, which will " provide strategic consulting and investment and merchant banking services to middle market and growth companies in the global security arena, including port security, surveillance, communications, risk management, data and intellectual property, biometrics, logistics, software, and information technology" (AshcroftCEA, November 5, 2007). AshcroftCEA appears to employ much the same team as the Ashcroft Group.

Ashcroft is an advisory board member or board chairman for several defense- or security-related firms, including: Pride, a body armor manufacturer in which Ashcroft Group has an equity stake; Ceelox, a biometric technology firm in which the Ashcroft Group acquired an equity stake; Innova Holdings, a robotics firm; and Dulles Research, LLC, a software security firm in which the Ashcroft Group has an equity position. The Ashcroft Group sometimes exchanges its services for stock options.

Ashcroft's return to the private sector has returned big dividends for him. According to the Kansas City Star, Ashcroft "gives a couple of speeches a month at $75,000 a pop" and "the Ashcroft Group reported $269,000 in lobbying billings for the last three months of 2005, according to federal records. That's just a fraction of the seven-person firm's total earnings since it opened its doors in mid-2005; [CEO David] Ayres called lobbying 'incidental' to the firm's projects. ...

"The firm's most lucrative lobbying client thus far, Oracle paid Ashcroft's firm $220,000 to help it deal with antitrust issues. The Justice Department dropped an antitrust investigation of Oracle, which was begun under Ashcroft, shortly after Oracle hired him.

"The Ashcroft Group's other lobbying clients include ChoicePoint, a data management firm; Israel Aircraft Industries International, the state-owned industry that needs help in its effort to re-sell an American weapons system to South Korea; LTU Technologies, Inc., which makes high-tech law enforcement-related products; and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants" (Kansas City Star, January 17, 2006).

In spring 2007, the Ashcroft Group drew attention when it offered its lobbying services to both sides of the debate involving the merger of XM Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. XM Radio declined the Ashcroft Group's offer, but the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which was against the merger, accepted. "After NAB retained the services of the Ashcroft Group, Ashcroft sent a letter to his successor, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, criticizing the deal as raising serious competitive concerns" (The Hill, March 6, 2007).

In late 2007, Ashcroft was criticized by a New Jersey congressman for taking a job given to his firm by a former employee, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie. "Rep. Bill Pascrell (D) is asking the House Judiciary Committee to investigate the award of a contract to the Ashcroft Group, headed by former Attorney General John Ashcroft. The [Howey Political Report] reports that Pascrell, in his November 26 letter, writes, 'In this case, I understand that the U.S. Attorney selected Ashcroft Group Consulting Services, which according to reports stands to collect more than $52 million in 18 months for its monitoring of Zimmer Holdings of Indiana.' Zimmer, along with several other companies, agreed to submit to federal monitoring of their activities after they were targeted by the DOJ for using illegal tactics to get surgeons to use their products" (Frontrunner, November 30, 2007).

A highly public proponent of conservative domestic policies (including on the death penalty, abortion, gay rights, and gun control), Ashcroft also became the public face of the Bush administration's "war no terror" as the architect of the widely criticized USA PATRIOT Act, which was passed shortly after the 9/11 attacks. After 9/11, Ashcroft became one of the country's leading proponents of increased government surveillance powers, judicial secrecy, and military commissions allowed to judge suspected enemy combatants (for a history of his policy positions, see "Profile: John Ashcroft," BBC News).

"He championed a broad expansion of government power to investigate possible terrorist cells through the USA Patriot Act, authorized the detention of hundreds without charges in the days after Sept. 11, pushed immigration agents to fully use their power to deport foreigners, secured new authority to peer into private records even in libraries, and oversaw legal interpretations that opened the door to harsh interrogation techniques that critics called torture," reported the Washington Post (May 20, 2007). However: "In addition to rejecting the most expansive version of the warrantless eavesdropping program, the officials said, Ashcroft also opposed holding detainees indefinitely at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without some form of due process. He fought to guarantee some rights for those to be tried by newly created military commissions. And he insisted that Zacarias Moussaoui, accused of conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers, be prosecuted in a civilian court. These internal disputes often put Ashcroft at odds with Vice President [Dick] Cheney and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld" (Washington Post, May 20, 2007).

In a December 2001 speech at the National Press Club, Roger Pilon, vice president for legal affairs at the libertarian Cato Institute, characterized the degree to which Ashcroft's actions had alienated the public. Said Pilon: "It's a rare day in Washington when The Washington Post and The Washington Times agree editorially. Yet in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday, Attorney General John Ashcroft brought that about. The Washington Times tried honestly to credit Mr. Ashcroft, but in the end it was forced to conclude that, 'despite Mr. Ashcroft's best efforts, the administration has failed thus far to make the case for military tribunals and keeping detainee's names secret.' The Post, for its part, raised similar concerns, but focused primarily on what it called 'The Ashcroft Smear'—the claim that critics of certain of the administration's policies are aiding and abetting the enemy—a smear Friday's New York Times criticized editorially as well. So what was it, exactly, that the attorney general said last Thursday that brought forth that confluence of opinion? It's worth quoting his remarks in full, for the sake of accuracy and, of equal importance, to communicate their tone: 'To those who pit Americans against immigrants, and citizens against non-citizens; to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty; my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists—for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil.' The problem with those assertions—made not in response to senatorial questions, let me note, but as part of Mr. Ashcroft's prepared remarks—is that every one is false."

Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.