 story lede: A senior Justice Department
official says a $500,000 federal grant to the World Golf Foundation is an appropriate use of money designed to deal with juvenile
crime in America. "We need something really attractive to engage the gangs and the street kids, golf is the hook,"
said J. Robert Flores, the administrator of the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The Justice Department, in a decision by Flores, gave the money to the World Golf Foundation's First Tee program,
even though Justice Department staffers had rated the program 47th on a list of 104 applicants. "I don't
know why people insist on denigrating it, it's a sound program," Flores told ABC News. Current and former
Justice Department employees allege that Flores ignored the staff rankings in favor of programs that had political, social
or religious connections to the Bush White House. The honorary chairman of the First Tee program is former President George Bush. On a videotape presentation,
the former President Bush praised the program for "serving others and building character and building values." The
director of the golf program, Joe Louis BarrowJr., said the program would help teach inner city children because "golf
is a game where values such as honesty, integrity and sportsmanship are essential." The golf program grant is
one of a number of Justice Department grants now coming under scrutiny by a Congressional committee which will hold hearings
next week. A key witness will be a former employee of Flores' office, Scott Peterson, who says the grants were
awarded based more on politics than merit. "This is cronyism, this is waste, fraud and abuse," Peterson
told ABC News in an interview aired on Nightline Monday night. Peterson says the money for the golf program is one
of a number of grants awarded to lower-ranked applicants rated in rankings compiled by Justice Department staff members.
"It's a lot of our taxpayer money that's supposed to go for some of our most vulnerable children," Peterson
said. story lede: A
former top official in the White House's faith-based office was awarded a lucrative Department of Justice grant under
pressure from two senior Bush administration appointees, according to current and former DOJ staff members and a review of
internal DOJ documents and emails. The $1.2 million grant was jointly awarded to a consulting firm run by Lisa
Trevino Cummins who previously headed Hispanic outreach efforts for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives,
and a California evangelical group, Victory Outreach. The grant was awarded over the strong objections of career DOJ
staff who did not believe that Victory Outreach was qualified for the grant and that too great an amount of the funds was
going to Cummins' consulting company instead of being spent on services for children. Cummins' company, Urban
Strategies LLC, was slated to get one third of the money for helping the self-described "evangelizing" Victory Outreach
use the rest of the funds. On its website, Victory Outreach describes itself as a "church-oriented Christian ministry
called to the task of evangelizing and disciplining the hurting people of the world, with the message of hope and plan of
Jesus Christ." The grant is now central to a Justice Department probe into alleged irregular contracting practices
within its own ranks, according to a federal law enforcement official close to the investigation. The money was awarded
by J. Robert Flores, the Administrator of the DOJ's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) who
is under investigation by the DOJ's Inspector General after current and former employees said he awarded grants to programs
with the right political and ideological connections. OJJDP grants are intended to address juvenile delinquency prevention
and/or the juvenile justice system. Questions about Flores' awarding of grants were raised earlier this month by ABC News on Nightline. Cummins' application for the grant should have immediately "raised red flags," according to a senior
Justice Department official. The official said that most of the grant money should be going to services, but that "in
this case, you have a third of the money up front going to a consulting company," the official said. To read the
entire story click here.
Anna Schecter and Murray Waas, "DOJ Official Fired in Wake of ABC News Investigation," June 25, 2008. story lede: A Department of Justice official was fired yesterday
after refusing to testify at a Congressional hearing regarding whether or not her office awarded hundreds of millions of dollars
in grants based on political favoritism and personal connections. Michele DeKonty, Chief of Staff for the DOJ's
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Administrator, cited the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination,
and declined to appear at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing last week. DeKonty's departure
also comes on the heels of a Justice Department probe into alleged irregular contracting practices within its own ranks according
to a federal law enforcement official close to the investigation. Questions about the agency's awarding of grants
were raised earlier this month by ABC News on Nightline. (click here to watch the report) OJJDP staff members were notified of DeKonty's departure this morning in an email from the office's administrator, J. Robert Flores, who is also under investigation by the DOJ's Inspector General. That investigation probes
Flores' hiring of a Honduran Colonel as a contractor on faith-based issues and his alleged golfing during conferences
on taxpayer-funded business trips, according to a staff member who was contacted by the OIG. In the email Flores said,
"Over the past 2 years I have had the benefit of working with a talented and professional Chief of Staff in Michele DeKonty.
Yesterday, ended her tenure with our Office."
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