Investigators say Ashcroft's Patriot Act speeches were lawful

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General John Ashcroft did not violate antilobbying laws when he gave a series of speeches last year promoting the antiterror Patriot Act, Justice Department internal investigators have concluded.

The agency's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, said the trips to 16 cities in August and September of 2003 did not run afoul of laws barring executive branch officials from engaging in grass-roots lobbying or prohibiting the spending of government money on unauthorized ''publicity or propaganda."

''Neither the Anti-Lobbying Act nor the appropriations provision prohibited the attorney general and the US attorneys from making public speeches conveying [the Department of Justice's] view regarding the merits of the Patriot Act and discussing the DOJ's use of the law's provisions," Fine said.

The inspector general's conclusions were in a letter to Representative John Conyers of Michigan, senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. The letter, dated Friday, was obtained yesterday by the Associated Press.

Conyers, who could not be reached immediately for comment, had asked Fine to investigate after a Government Accountability Office report showed that Ashcroft's tour and a pro-Patriot Act Internet site had cost more than $208,000 and had involved activities by 80 of the 93 US attorneys.

In his letter, Fine said that the attorney general and US attorneys, as presidential appointees, are exempt from prohibitions against executive branch lobbying of Congress.

He also noted that a review of Ashcroft's speeches found he never urged audience members to contact members of Congress on behalf of the Patriot Act.

''In addition, given the DOJ's responsibility to enforce criminal laws, we do not believe they could be considered 'purely partisan,' " Fine wrote.

The Patriot Act, passed by Congress a few weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, gave federal law enforcement officials broader powers of surveillance and prosecution against suspected terrorists, their financiers, and their sympathizers.

Next year, Congress must decide whether to renew major parts of the law.