(Washington, DC) - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) released the following statement on a report by the Justice Department inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility on the Civil Rights Division:

"This report confirms the committee’s work showing that the Bush Justice Department abandoned its mission to promote fairness and equal justice under the law.  Indeed, the Civil Rights Division that is charged with preventing employment discrimination instead appears to have been guilty of it. Partisan politics infected the honors program and other hiring decisions, personnel transfers, and even which cases went to which attorneys, and Division leadership failed to stop it. For example, the niece of a former Bush agency head was hired even though the career section chief concluded she was not qualified. The new administration must take active steps to restore the department’s mission to promote civil rights.