The DOJ IG report concludes that Michael Elston, the chief of staff to then-Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, violated federal law and DOJ policy in making partisan-based hiring decisions for the department's Honors Program.

But it's worth looking at the analysis the inspector general did in determining the actual impact of those ideological-based hirings. For example, in 2002, the first year of the new politicized hiring process for the Honors Program, 80% of the so-called liberal applicants who had made it to the second stage of the hiring process were screened out, while just 9% of so-called conservative applicants were.

We have the numbers and charts laid out here at TPMmuckraker.