Disgraced Former Attorney General John Ashcroft was handed a no-bid contract worth as much as $52 million.

The contract was given to the consulting firm Ashcroft started after he left his AG post by U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie of New Jersey, a Republican who once worked for him in the AG offices.The job, worth $52 million, is to simply oversee compliance by a corporation that was under threat of being prosecuted unless it changed the way it did business.

"There is not a conflict," Ashcroft said. "There is not an appearance of conflict."

These kind of government sweetheart deals are why America's government is falling apart.......