Former USA Debra Wong Yang in huge money deal to monitor artificial hip/knee replacement makers.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's law firm could earn $52.2 million helping the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey monitor a leading maker of knee and hip replacements, according to recent public filings.

Ashcroft's firm is among five legal teams U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie hand-picked to watch the manufacturers, who agreed in September to pay $311 million and hire monitors to settle allegations they paid surgeons to use and promote their devices.

Christie, who took office in January 2002 and worked under Ashcroft until Ashcroft stepped down in 2005, denied any conflict Tuesday.

"If he were still my boss or potentially my boss in the future, I guess that would be something to talk about, but you know I just don't see it as an issue," Christie said. "I hired him because I know he's somebody of honesty and integrity and who has the experience to be able to do a job like this."

The arrangement, disclosed in Oct. 31 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, was first reported Tuesday by The Star-Ledger of Newark.

The other monitors include John Carley, a former Federal Trade Commission and Cendant Corp. attorney; David Kelley, the former Manhattan U.S. attorney; David Samson, the former New Jersey attorney general; and Debra Yang, the former U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

There is yet another United States attorney whose abrupt departure from office is raising questions: Debra Wong Yang of Los Angeles. Ms. Yang was not fired, as eight other prosecutors were, but she resigned under circumstances that raise serious questions, starting with whether she was pushed out to disrupt her investigation of one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress.

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Ms. Yang was investigating Jerry Lewis, who was chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Ms. Lam and most of the other purged prosecutors were fired on Dec. 7. Ms. Yang, in a fortuitously timed exit, resigned in mid-October.

Ms. Yang says she left for personal reasons, but there is growing evidence that the White House was intent on removing her. Kyle Sampson, the Justice Department staff member in charge of the firings, told investigators last month in still-secret testimony that Harriet Miers, the White House counsel at the time, had asked him more than once about Ms. Yang. He testified, according to Congressional sources, that as late as mid-September, Ms. Miers wanted to know whether Ms. Yang could be made to resign. Mr. Sampson reportedly recalled that Ms. Miers was focused on just two United States attorneys: Ms. Yang and Bud Cummins, the Arkansas prosecutor who was later fired to make room for Tim Griffin, a Republican political operative and Karl Rove protégé.

It is hard to see what put Ms. Yang on the White House list other than her investigation of Mr. Lewis, which threatened to pull in well-connected lobbyists, military contractors and Republican contributors. Ms. Yang, by all accounts, had a strong record. Alberto Gonzales hailed her as “one of the most respected U.S. attorneys in the country.”

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The new job that Ms. Yang landed raised more red flags. Press reports say she got a $1.5 million signing bonus to become a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a firm with strong Republican ties. She was hired to be co-leader of the Crisis Management Practice Group with Theodore Olson, who was President Bush’s solicitor general and his Supreme Court lawyer in Bush v. Gore. Gibson, Dunn was defending Mr. Lewis in Ms. Yang’s investigation.

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Another possibility is that the timing of her departure was coincidental. That would make her lucky indeed: after more than 15 years of working for government, she decided to take a private sector job precisely when the White House counsel was apparently trying to fire her.

It is impossible to know how much of a setback Ms. Yang’s departure was to the investigation of Mr. Lewis.

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