Attorney General under fire for "suspect" Microsoft settlement

US Attorney General John Ashcroft has come under heavy fire for his involvement in Microsoft's antitrust settlement, after it emerged he received $20,000 from the Seattle company in the year leading up to the 2000 presidential election.

An open letter from John Conyers, ranking Democrat member of the House Judiciary Committee, to Ashcroft said the Attorney General, who very publicly removed himself from the Enron scandal, to avoid a conflict of interest after heavy Enron donations, should have done the same with the Microsoft case.

Conyers also rejected Ashcroft's assertion that the Microsoft settlement has been widely regarded as a fair outcome of the trial. He wrote: "The settlement you propose is, in fact, so suspect that no less than nine states and the District of Columbia have taken the unprecedented step of proceeding on their own."

He also brings Ashcroft to task for trying to keep his correspondence with Microsoft secret, accusing him of an improper use of executive privilege.