Facing troubled agency, attorney general sworn in
Hours after his Senate approval, Mukasey turned his attention to Justice's morale and reputation.
WASHINGTON - Retired federal judge Michael B. Mukasey was sworn in yesterday as the nation's 81st attorney general, filling a vacancy left when Alberto R. Gonzales resigned amid questions about his credibility.
Mukasey took the oath in a private Justice Department ceremony about 16 hours after he narrowly won Senate confirmation.
The 53-40 vote late Thursday marked the narrowest margin to confirm an attorney general in more than 50 years. His confirmation had briefly stalled over his refusal to say whether he considered an interrogation tactic known as waterboarding a form of illegal torture.
But Mukasey made clear to senators during his confirmation hearings that he would not tolerate politics influencing decisions about prosecuting cases or hiring career attorneys, allegations being investigated now in an inquiry into last year's firings of nine U.S. attorneys.
As the third attorney general of the Bush administration, Mukasey, 66, inherits a Justice Department struggling to restore its image with more than a dozen vacant leadership jobs and just 14 months to make many changes before another president takes office.
He will oversee 110,000 employees who have been jolted by almost a year of scandal that forced the resignation of his predecessor and cast doubt on the government's ability to prosecute cases fairly.
The scandal, which led to Gonzales' ouster in September, tarnished the Justice Department's long-held independent stance and prompted a flood of resignations from its senior officials. Twelve of the highest-ranking department jobs - including the Nos. 2 and 3 spots and six assistant attorneys general - currently are held by officials who have not been confirmed by the Senate. Two other senior officials have announced their resignations and are expected to leave shortly.
Among Mukasey's top priorities will be to convince employees at Justice Department and in the 94 U.S. Attorneys' Offices nationwide that he will administer the law fairly and without political bias. That could also help restore public confidence, said Eric Holder, who served as deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration.
"Internally, there is a morale problem the likes of which I have never seen before," Holder said. "Externally, there is a crisis of confidence that the nation has with regard to the department."
Mukasey "has to move swiftly and tangibly in order to restore faith in the integrity of the decision-making at Justice," Holder said. "He has to show that he, not political operatives at the White House, is making the calls at Justice."
Department officials maintain they have already taken steps to fix internal policies that let politics seep into daily operations.
One new measure allows U.S. attorneys to decide whom to hire as trial prosecutors. During Gonzales' tenure, former department White House liaison Monica Goodling gave hiring preference to Republican Party activists. Now, Justice headquarters weighs in only when hiring might affect the agency budget.
Another measure reverses an order that gave Goodling and former Justice chief of staff Kyle Sampson authority to hire or fire about 135 politically appointed Justice Department employees. That authority has been reassigned to the deputy attorney general's office, where it previously had been.
The process to appoint immigration judges has also been revised to make sure career Justice employees have significant input.