Attorney General Michael Mukasey was supposed to end the cynical politicization of the Justice Department. But the sudden disbanding of the United States attorney’s public corruption office in Los Angeles looks like business as usual.

There were a number of sensitive inquiries under way at the high-profile office, including an investigation of Representative Jerry Lewis, the powerful California Republican who directed hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks to favored government contractors while chairman of the appropriations committee.

Representative Lewis denied any wrongdoing as investigators tracked ties between windfall government contracts and lucrative campaign donations. One former staff specialist on earmarks crossed over to become a potent lobbyist for contractors. The inquiry appears to have lagged during the administration’s strategic reshuffling of United States attorneys.

Thomas O’Brien, the United States attorney in Los Angeles, says the 17 lawyers in the unit will be transferred to other units without diminishing the anticorruption effort. He insists the revamping of his office will allow pursuit of more corruption cases, not fewer.