WASHINGTON, May 23, 2007
Ex-Aide Accuses Gonzales Of Wrongdoing
Monica Goodling Says Attorney General Tried To Review His Version Of Firings With Her Amid Probe
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Play CBS Video Video Ex-Gonzales Aide On Firings CBS News RAW: The Justice Department's former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, told Congress that Deputy Attorney Gen. Paul McNulty was not candid in his testimony but denied wrongdoing.
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Former Justice Department liaison to the White House Monica Goodling appeared before the House Judiciary Committe in Washington on May 23, 2007. She resigned from her post in April. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)
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Who's Who Firings Firestorm Justice Department at center of controversy over firing of eight U.S. attorneys.
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Interactive The Bush Cabinet A look at departures, new nominees and long-standing members of the president's staff.
Gonzales' resignation is being demanded by Democrats and some Republicans in part over the firings. President 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.
The Justice Department had no immediate comment.
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, Mr. 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.
McNulty's explanation about the dismissals during his Feb. 6 Senate testimony, "was incomplete or inaccurate in a number of respects," Goodling said. "I believe the deputy was not fully candid."
McNulty told senators during the Feb. 6 hearing 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.
Goodling said Wednesday she played a limited role in the firings and regretted the way they were carried out. She also disputed public descriptions of her as a controlling manager prone to emotional outbursts.
"The person I read about on the Internet and in the newspaper is not me," she said.
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See all 185 CommentsPolly-wanna is a dimwit. Can't seem to grasp timelines and can't follow the trend of thought. Must live life only in the moment. No continuity, no point of reference. Just focus on the immediate and therefore, that's all that counts. Well, polly-wanna take your peyote and enjoy the moment. Next event coming up - polly-wanna will stay focused. Life is just a moment-to-moment event. Just like all users. Waiting for the next fix. LOL
Posted by j4401
a republican can't get a bj unless it's from one of their little boys.
Posted by rharrin1
Since all of you dimwits just can't grasp the point and seem to think the essence of my ire is BJ's bj, the point of it since you are all so moral and righteous is that this disgusting human sample of *****, while getting his rocks off, because he could, was actually in dereliction of his duty as commander in chief. Ya know, the ship of state was adrift at sea, nobody was a the helm, get it -- WTC I, Oklahoma Bombing, worst AG in history that Janet Reno, Embassies in Africa, USS Cole, are you getting my point. Osama well within his range and he did nothing. The irony of this is that you all ignore the fact that this man's actions lowered the bar, not to mention his predecessor JFK, and you sit there and complain as to what follows. And as far as pointing out the the repubs allowed a fairy to go after other little fairies is hypocrisy personified on your side of the aisle as if the latter faries didn't enjoy the limelight. Reminds me of the time when all those sleezebags on the hill went after all the little prettys who encouraged them too thinking their careers would be advanced. Again the bar was lowered. But you sit there and say I pontificate, then you grumble about ethics. And just for the record I come from a long line of Dumnocrats, but not any more.
Posted by cathaleen at 02:42 PM : May 23, 2007
Because she IS GUILTY of some crimes. She confessed to using political affiliation as a factor for hiring in the civil service which is crime. She did not reveal anything damaging outside of the Justice Department. Make the committee dig, do not volunteer anything. She too is covered under the Hatch Act. She may not have had a voice communication with anyone at the WH but what about written?? We go back to those e-mails on computers setup by the RNC!!!
its our right and it the constitution. if our governmet is not doing what the american want its up to us to change it.....
so lets get started
%u201CI don't believe I intended to commit a crime,%u201D
%u201CI don't believe I intended to commit a crime,%u201D
%u201CI don't believe I intended to commit a crime,%u201D
%u201CI don't believe I intended to commit a crime,%u201D
-Ok Bart Simpson write it 100 times on the board
I want to see him do the frog-walk!!
In order to understand a sociopath, you have to learn to think like one. So what is the thought process?
1. Plead the fifth.
2. Admit to one or two criminal infractions to justify taking the fifth, saving yourself.
3. Cover your bosses ***, saving your boss.
One very telling moment came when Ms. Goodling answered a question about having kept someone out of a job:
"I didn't know they were a Democrat, though I knew they were a liberal" (SIC)-- Monica Goodling
Notice the phrase. It should burn into your mind like fire.
Posted by mudrose at 04:50 PM : May 23, 2007
You Don't like Kangaroo Courts but you wail to high heaven about an Affair uncovered because the Fascist Prosicutor couldn't find one thing wrong with what he was SUPPOSED to be looking into. Man that's about as stupid as anything I've ever heard. OF course there is a difference in Lies... there are lies that hurt only the person telling it, Clinton, and there are lies that hurt us all, Gonzo and Bush. Any fool who thinks Clintons Wrong even comes close to "High Crimes" is totally out of their minds. Anyone who does NOT see the lies of Gonzo and the High Crimes he and Bush have committed, again, is out of their minds. Sieg Heil and Amen.
I'm one of the people who wants to get Karl Rove and if this is supposed to be a disappointment, keep 'em coming! We've been hearing for weeks from you cons that no crime was committed. She admitted to committing a crime herself and directly implicated the AG in obstruction of justice and the Ast. AG in perjury. Not bad.
mudrose,
How do you parse obstruction of jusice and perjury from the chief law enforcement officers in the land? You may try to cast these as being like parking tickets but you are only fooling the Ann Coulter loonie crowd. It would cost less money if anyone from the Bush administration other than this woman came out and said what they did. Like most conservative Republicans, you aren't the least bit consistent. Never say bad about another Republican, isn't that the credo?
It has been established that Gonzales broke the law,unless everyone else from this administration testifying under oath is committing perjury.
The right-wing has gone so far to the right that everyone who disagres with their point of view looks like a Nazi to them.
Interesting how they'll hide pedophiles within their own party(Foley), but impeach a president for consensual heterosexual ***.
Sorry for the change of topic :)
Posted by homjett at 07:24 PM : May 23, 2007
You sound an awlful lot like a nazi to me. When the Do NOTHING Congress was in power there was NO oversight as REQUIRED by the Constitution. You do remember that document don't you? It says as plainly as it can be said that what the Democrats are doing here with Gonzo and the Klan Man is ABSOLUTELY their jobs. Since when is doing their jobs wrong? As for the war, it's not the Democrats who will bear the burden of the continuing failure of Iraq. They tried to pass legislation getting us out but the Fascist blocked it and the Fuhrer vetoed it. So when you can't get that done you move on... it's called Democracy and there is so much the fascist left for this congress to clean up. Sieg Heil Y'all. ROFLMAO
It's time to send a fat intern to the Oval office to service Bush.
Looks like that's the only crime that will get the Republicans to impeach this scumbag.
I applaude Petraeus on his honesty and courage. Hopefully, the General can do what the administration couldn't/wouldn't.
Thanks for wasting my hard earned tax dollars.
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