Several groups are calling upon the Justice Department to initiate a criminal probe into John Ashcroft's 2000 campaign finance activities. The groups charge that Ashcroft may have committed acts of tax evasion:

Several groups Thursday urged the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Attorney General John Ashcroft's use of a political action committee mailing list during his 2000 Senate race.

The National Voting Rights Institute, Public Citizen and other groups contended in a letter that Ashcroft evaded campaign finance laws through his Senate campaign's use of a mailing list developed by his Spirit of America PAC at a cost of $1.7 million.

They also say that while Ashcroft told the Federal Election Commission he personally owned the mailing list at one point, he failed to include it on a required report to the Senate outlining his financial holdings. He may have broken tax laws by failing to report income earned from the list on his Internal Revenue Service income tax filings, they say.

You can read the groups' joint letter to to the Justice Department here. Lots more information is available at StepAsideAshcroft.