A Department of Justice official was fired yesterday after refusing to testify at a Congressional hearing regarding whether or not her office awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in grants based on political favoritism and personal connections.

Michele DeKonty, Chief of Staff for the DOJ’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Administrator, cited the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and declined to appear at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing last week.

OJJDP staff members were notified of DeKonty’s departure this morning in an email from the office’s administrator, J. Robert Flores, who is also under investigation by the DOJ’s Inspector General. That investigation probes Flores’ hiring of a Honduran Colonel as a contractor on faith-based issues and his alleged golfing during conferences on taxpayer-funded business trips.