Conyers blasts Justice Department's Microsoft decision

Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) questions the Justice Department's decision in the Microsoft antitrust case.

By Ted Barrett, CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The top ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee blasted the Justice Department's decision to abandon its efforts to break up Microsoft on Thursday, and suggested that "unneeded or inappropriate contact" may have played a role in that decision.

"I cannot understand why, in one of the most important and significant antitrust actions brought in several generations, the department would, on its own, in the complete absence of negotiation, take several critical litigation options off the table," Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, wrote in a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft shortly after the decision was announced.

"In my judgment, eliminating prosecutorial options at the same time that the defendant has failed to yield any of its own options threaten to weaken and slow down the case, rather than provide a route to 'prompt, effective, and certain relief' as your press release claims," Conyers wrote.

"Given recent allegations and complaints regarding possible anti-competitive implications relating to Microsoft's proposed release of its new 'XP' operating system, I believe the antitrust concerns of the department's unusual announcement become all the more pronounced," Conyers continued in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by CNN.

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Saying he is "concerned that there may have been unneeded or inappropriate contact (or the appearance of such contact) between the White House -- including political personnel in the administration -- and decision-makers at the department regarding this matter," Conyers asked Ashcroft to send him a list of all contacts between the White House and DOJ, and the White House and Microsoft officials since the Bush administration took office.

"I am concerned about information I have received indicating that President Bush, himself may have supplanted the role of veteran career litigators at the Department of Justice," Conyers wrote. "As a result, I am particularly interested in learning about what role, if any, Phil Perry, associate attorney general and Vice President Cheney's son-in-law; Alberto Gonzales, assistant to the president and White House counsel; and Larry Lindsey, assistant to the president for economic policy and director, National Economic Council, played in this decision."

Conyers said he wanted e-mails, documents, memoranda, phone records and other communications delivered to him by Sept. 13.

"I am hopeful you will agree that it is in the department's and the public's interest to release this information in order to avoid any possible appearance or suggestion of impropriety or political favoritism," Conyers wrote.