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Monica Goodling Testimony Exposes McNulty and Gonzales...
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| Monica Goodling Testimony Exposes McNulty and Gonzales...
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Former Gonzales aide admits "crossing the line"
By Thomas Ferraro and Jeremy Pelofsky
1 hour, 35 minutes ago
A former aide to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told Congress on Wednesday she "crossed the line" by letting politics influence the Justice Department's hiring process.
But Monica Goodling, the 33-year-old counsel to Gonzales who resigned after Congress began an investigation of the firings of federal prosecutors, said she had a limited role with the case that has triggered bipartisan calls for Gonzales to resign.
"I did not hold the keys to the kingdom," said the former employee of the Republican National Committee who testified only after being granted immunity from prosecution.
"I was not the primary White House contact for purposes of the development or approval of the U.S. attorney replacement plan," which originated at the White House shortly after President George W. Bush was re-elected in November 2004.
Indeed, Goodling, a graduate of conservative Christian leader Pat Robertson's Regent University law school who served as a senior counsel to Gonzales and the department's White House liaison, said Bush political adviser Karl Rove never contacted her about the firing of any prosecutor. One of the dismissed U.S. attorneys was replaced by a former Rove aide.
Goodling was subpoenaed as part of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee's probe of Gonzales' firing last year of nine of the 93 U.S. attorneys, all Bush appointees.
She also faces an internal Justice Department investigation into whether she brought political questions into the hiring process for career positions, such as assistant U.S. attorneys. That would violate federal law.
REGRETS MISTAKES
"I do acknowledge that I may have gone too far in asking political questions of applicants for career positions and may have taken inappropriate political considerations into account on some occasions," Goodling told the House panel.
"I regret these mistakes," said Goodling.
Asked if she believed she had done anything illegal, Goodling said: "I know I crossed the line."
"But I didn't mean to," she added.
Bush and Gonzales have said the firings of U.S. attorneys were justified though mishandled. They have rejected charges that some were politically motivated to impact ongoing federal probes involving Democratic or Republican lawmakers.
Gonzales, in earlier testimony before the committee, said he had not gone back to talk to staff involved in the firings "in order to protect the integrity" of the investigations.
Yet Goodling said Gonzales told her about his recollections of the dismissals in March, shortly before she resigned. "I didn't know that it was maybe appropriate for us to talk about that at that point, and so I just didn't," she said.
Goodling placed some of the blame for the furor over the fired prosecutors on Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, denying claims she had withheld information from him before he testified to Congress in February.
"Despite my and others' best effort, the deputy's public testimony was incomplete or inaccurate," Goodling said, adding, "I believe the deputy was not fully candid about his knowledge of White House involvement in the replacement decision."
In a statement, McNulty said he testified truthfully "based on what I knew at that time."
"Ms. Goodling's characterization of my testimony is wrong and not supported by the extensive record," said McNulty, who recently announced plans to resign.
Committee Chairman John Conyers (news, bio, voting record), a Michigan Democrat, vowed to push ahead with the probe, saying: "The issues we are examining -- which include possible obstruction of justice, misleading Congress ... are quite serious."
But Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, called it a "fishing expedition. There ain't no fish in the water."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070523...rosecutors_dc_5
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Goodling: Gonzales tried to review story
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 39 minutes ago
A former Justice Department official told House investigators Wednesday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tried to review his version of the prosecutor firings with her at a time when lawmakers were homing in on conflicting accounts.
"It made me a little uncomfortable," Monica Goodling, Gonzales' former White House liaison, said of her conversation with the attorney general just before she took a leave of absence in March. "I just did not know if it was appropriate for us to both be discussing our recollections of what had happened."
In a daylong appearance before the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee, Goodling, 33, also acknowledged crossing a legal line herself by considering the party affiliations of candidates for career prosecutor jobs — a violation of law.
And she said that Gonzales' No. 2, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, knew more than he let on when he did not disclose to Congress the extent of White House involvement in deciding which prosecutors to fire. McNulty strongly denied that he withheld information, saying Goodling did not fully brief him about the White House's involvement.
Goodling's dramatic story about her final conversation with Gonzales brought questions from panel members about whether he had tried to align her story with his and whether he was truthful in his own congressional testimony.
Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that he didn't know the answers to some questions about the firings because he was steering clear of aides — such as Goodling — who were likely to be questioned.
"I haven't talked to witnesses because of the fact that I haven't wanted to interfere with this investigation and department investigations," Gonzales told the panel.
Goodling said for the first time Wednesday that Gonzales did review the story of the firings with her at an impromptu meeting she requested in his office a few days before she took a leave of absence.
"I was somewhat paralyzed. I was distraught, and I felt like I wanted to make a transfer," Goodling recalled during a packed hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.
Gonzales, she said, indicated he would think about Goodling's request.
"He then proceeded to say, 'Let me tell you what I can remember,' and he laid out for me his general recollection ... of some of the process" of the firings, Goodling added. When Gonzales finished, "he asked me if I had any reaction to his iteration."
Goodling said the conversation made her uncomfortable because she was aware that she, Gonzales and others would be called by Congress to testify.
"Was the attorney general trying to shake your recollection?" asked Rep. Artur Davis (news, bio, voting record), D-Ala.
Goodling paused.
"I just did not know if it was a conversation we should be having and so I just didn't say anything," she replied. She added that she thought Gonzales was trying to be kind.
Democrats pounced.
"It certainly has the flavor of trying to get their stories straight," said Rep. Adam Schiff (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., a member of the committee.
The Justice Department denied that Gonzales did anything at that meeting other than try to help Goodling.
"The attorney general has never attempted to influence or shape the testimony or public statements of any witness in this matter, including Ms. Goodling," said spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. "The statements made by the attorney general during this meeting were intended only to comfort her in a very difficult period of her life."
Gonzales' resignation is being demanded by Democrats and some Republicans in part over the firings. Bush is standing by his longtime friend, but Democrats have pressed ahead with their probe, contending the firings may have been an attempt to exploit a loophole in the Patriot Act to install GOP loyalists as prosecutors without Senate confirmation.
Gonzales has denied that. But the furor has been costly nonetheless — Goodling and Sampson have resigned over it. McNulty, too, is leaving later this year. And many lawmakers who have not directly demanded Gonzales' resignation say he has lost their confidence.
Republicans spent most of the hearing dismissing the hubbub over the firings as politically motivated. Rep. Dan Lungren (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., said Goodling's meeting with Gonzales sounded innocent, if awkward.
"This thing ended with a thud," Lungren said of the hearing.
Earlier Wednesday, Goodling acknowledged that she had given too much consideration to whether candidates for jobs as career prosecutors were Republicans or Democrats.
"You crossed the line on civil service laws, is that right?" asked Rep. Bobby Scott (news, bio, voting record), D-Va.
"I believe I crossed the lines," Goodling replied. "But I didn't mean to."
She said she had limited involvement in the firings and offered the panel's Democrats nothing new in their probe of whether President Bush's top political and legal aides chose which prosecutors to dismiss.
Goodling said she never talked to Karl Rove, Bush's political adviser, nor Harriet Miers, then the president's White House counsel, about the firings. She said Gonzales' former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, drew up the list of those to be dismissed but she didn't know how names got on it.
She testified that McNulty, the department's highest official after Gonzales, knew more than he admitted to congressional investigators about the extent of White House involvement in the firings of eight federal prosecutors. She said McNulty falsely accused her of withholding key details before he spoke to investigators.
"I believe the deputy was not fully candid," Goodling said.
McNulty told senators during the hearing Feb. 6 that the decision to fire the U.S. attorneys in December was made solely by the Justice Department.
He and another top Justice official, William Moschella, say Goodling and Sampson withheld crucial information from them as they prepared their congressional testimony.
"The allegation is false," she told the panel. "I didn't withhold information from the deputy."
McNulty retorted in a statement that his own testimony had been truthful "based on "what I knew at that time."
"Ms. Goodling's characterization of my testimony is wrong and not supported by the extensive record of documents and testimony already provided to Congress," he said.
After resigning, Goodling refused to testify, citing her constitutional right against self-incrimination. She then disappeared from public view, surfacing only Wednesday at the hearing. Conyers won court approval to have her testify under a grant of immunity from prosecution.
Goodling attended numerous meetings over a year's time about the plans to fire the U.S. attorneys and exchanged e-mails with the White House and at least one of the prosecutors before the dismissals were ordered. A former colleague, Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis, told congressional investigators this month that Goodling broke down in his office March 8 as majority Democrats in Congress prepared to call Justice Department officials to testify amid the emerging controversy.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070524...3xkb
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Officials Describe Interference by Former Gonzales Aide
By Dan Eggen and Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 23, 2007; A04
When Jeffrey A. Taylor, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, wanted to hire a new career prosecutor last fall, he had to run the idea past Monica M. Goodling, then a 33-year-old aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.
The candidate was Seth Adam Meinero, a Howard University law school graduate who had worked on civil rights cases at the Environmental Protection Agency and had served as a special assistant prosecutor in Taylor's office.
Goodling stalled the hiring, saying that Meinero was too "liberal" for the nonpolitical position, said according to two sources familiar with the dispute.
The tussle over Meinero, who was eventually hired at Taylor's insistence, led to a Justice Department investigation of whether Goodling improperly weighed political affiliation when reviewing applicants for rank-and-file prosecutor jobs, the sources said.
A 1999 graduate of Regent University law school in Virginia Beach with six months of prosecutorial experience, Goodling was among a small coterie of young aides to Gonzales who were remarkable for their inexperience and autonomy in deciding the fates of seasoned Justice Department lawyers, according to current and former officials who worked with the group.
She worked closely last year with D. Kyle Sampson, then the attorney general's chief of staff, sifting through lists of U.S. attorneys considered for removal, according to congressional interviews and Justice Department documents released to the public. Goodling also was central to the department's stumbling efforts to defend its handling of the firings of nine prosecutors, at times by attacking their reputations. She resigned in April.
Goodling is scheduled to testify today before the House Judiciary Committee about the firings, under an offer of immunity.
"All I ever wanted to do was serve this president, this administration, this department," Goodling tearfully told a senior Justice official shortly before she quit, according to a transcript of his interview released by the House committee last night.
Goodling's attorney, who has accused Democratic lawmakers of having already made up their minds about his client's role, did not return e-mail and telephone messages left at his office yesterday.
Goodling had been a divisive figure at the Justice Department since she arrived in early 2002, gaining a reputation for having a mercurial temperament and being prickly toward career employees, said numerous current and former officials who worked with her.
Goodling and Sampson "knew politics, not law," said Bruce Fein, a senior Justice official during the Reagan administration. "This extent [of] neophytes running the department is highly irregular."
Goodling started at Justice in a newly created position as senior counsel to the head of the public affairs office.
Nearly everyone who worked with her agreed that she was a tireless employee who often worked late into the night, and said she had deep loyalty to President Bush and his administration.
"She was very hardworking, she was dedicated, she was professional," said one former Justice official who worked closely with Goodling. "She is the type of person who is good at carrying out tasks. She was dependable."
In 2004, Goodling spent six months in the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia, in a special program designed to give Justice employees and other government lawyers a chance to gain courtroom experience.
Reviews of her tenure there are mixed. Three current or former Justice officials said she quickly developed a reputation for having an antagonistic and sharply ideological style. Others said she carried out her responsibilities professionally.
Goodling's next stop was as deputy director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, which oversees the department's 93 chief prosecutors. In April 2006, she began working for Gonzales, who granted her and Sampson broad powers to make personnel choices and other major decisions, according to officials and documents.
E-mails and other documents show that Goodling, who was also Justice's liaison to the White House, played a central role in arranging for the appointment of Tim Griffin, a former Republican National Committee official and aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove, as the U.S. attorney in Little Rock.
Goodling also met last summer with two New Mexico Republicans who complained about then-U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias, who was later fired. In another case, she single-handedly blocked the dismissal of a North Carolina prosecutor who for more than a year had been on the list of candidates to be fired.
The dispute with Taylor came last fall, when Taylor heard that Goodling was thwarting his effort to hire Meinero, sources said.
Taylor complained to Goodling directly, according to two sources who were told about the conversation, saying that a U.S. attorney's office hires all kinds of people. Taylor also complained to Sampson, who was a friend and eventually gave Taylor the authority to bypass Goodling.
Taylor mentioned the experience to U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg of Alexandria, the sources said. After Rosenberg became Gonzales's temporary chief of staff following Sampson's resignation, he asked the department's inspector general to look into Taylor's allegations, they added.
Before she and Sampson resigned, Goodling wrote a series of memos summing up the longtime U.S. attorneys she helped to fire. She said that Iglesias was "in over his head," that Carol C. Lam of San Diego showed "a failure to perform" and that Arizona's Paul K. Charlton was guilty of "repeated instances of insubordination."
Yet Goodling's final list, assembled as "talking points" for Congress and the media, also noted that nearly every fired prosecutor had received stellar reviews from Justice Department evaluators.
Goodling's public troubles began in mid-March, when Sampson disclosed to Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty and others that the plan to fire the U.S. attorneys had begun more than two years earlier in the White House, contrary to what McNulty and another official had testified to Congress.
He and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General William E. Moschella were livid, believing that Goodling and Sampson had misled them during preparations for the testimony, according to new transcripts released yesterday by the House Judiciary Committee.
"They were dead to him," Justice official David Margolis said, referring to Moschella. "They had burned their bridges with him."
Margolis said that Goodling was "shaken to her core" by the controversy and that she sobbed for "30 to 45 minutes" during a meeting in his office shortly before she resigned.
"I knew she must think that everything was unraveling," he said. "And, you know, she was right about that."
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