Former Attorney General John Ashcroft responded angrily Tuesday to Congressional Democrats who suggested that a no-bid private contract directed to him by the Justice Department last year amounted to a back-room sweetheart deal" worth tens of millions of dollars to his consulting firm. "There is not a conflict; there is not an appearance of a conflict," Mr. Ashcroft said at a hearing of a House Judiciary subcommittee exploring the circumstances of the contract. He repeatedly tried to talk over the panel's Democratic chairwoman, Representative Linda T. Snchez of California, who offered the severest questioning. Mr. Ashcroft stepped down from the Justice Department three years ago and now runs a Washington consulting and lobbying firm that bears his name. Ms. Snchez opened the hearing by suggesting the appearance of a conflict of interest in the department's decision last year to steer a monitoring contract worth $28 million to $52 million to Mr. Ashcroft's firm as part of an out-of-court settlement with a medical supply company under criminal investigation. The Indiana company, Zimmer Holdings, hired the Ashcroft firm as the settlement monitor at the direction of Christopher J. Christie, the United States attorney in New Jersey, who had pursued the investigation and had worked under Mr. Ashcroft at the Justice Department. "You don't believe that it may be a conflict of interest in a former employee hiring the former boss, or suggesting that he be hired, for a very lucrative contract?" she said of the 18-month contract, which requires Mr. Ashcroft to make sure that Zimmer complies with the terms of its settlement of kickback allegations. Ms. Snchez described the contract as a "back-room sweetheart deal" in which "Mr. Ashcroft was selected with no public notice and no bidding."