WASHINGTON, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The Justice Department under President George W. Bush's administration has injected politics into its employment, said a department report released on Tuesday.

    Members of a committee that was in charge of selecting employees were asked to leave out "ideological extremists" who applied for posts as entry-level attorneys or summer interns, according to the report by the inspector general.

    The rate of Liberal or Democratic affiliations applicants who were rejected was much higher than that of Republican, conservative or independent ones, the report said.

    Taking a Harvard student for instance, it said that the Arabic-speaking applicant was categorized into "questionable" list just due to his membership in the Council on American Islamic Relations civil-rights group, which, among other factors, was prohibited by federal law and administrative policies to play any role in employment.

    The report, in particularly, pointed out that the problem was more notable during the period of 2002 to 2006, when the department was led successively by Attorney General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales.

    "The screening committees in 2002 and 2006 improperly deselected candidates for interviews based on political and ideological affiliations," it said.

    In response to the report, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that the hiring practices of the Justice Department, which houses the country's top law enforcement officers, should never be the crux of "blatant partisanship" again.

    The current Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, called it "impermissible and unacceptable" that political affiliations became a factor in employee hiring by the department.