By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
May 23, 2007
WASHINGTON - 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. Gonzales has testified he hasn't spoken with witnesses.
"
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, 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,
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, 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.
___
Associated Press writer Lara Jakes Jordan contributed to this
report.
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