Former Gonzales Aide Ready To Talk

After taking the Fifth Amendment to avoid detailing her role in the Justice Department ouster of eight U.S. attorneys, Monica Goodling finally appears ready to talk.

Goodling, who resigned last month as the department's White House liaison, is set to testify Wednesday about the firings that have resulted in lawmakers' demands for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' own resignation.

Her appearance before the House Judiciary Committee is part of Congress' investigation into whether last year's firings were politically motivated.

Justice Department documents show Goodling, who is expected to receive immunity for testifying, helped former Gonzales chief of staff Kyle Sampson plan the dismissals.

Democrats are seeking to learn whether the White House inappropriately meddled in the firings. Documents released Tuesday indicate Goodling worked with three White House political and legal staffers in pushing plans to bypass senators' input about U.S. attorney nominations in their home states.

The documents, which contain transcripts of congressional interviews with former and current Justice employees, describe Goodling breaking down in the office of Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis on March 8 as the Democratic-controlled Congress made plans to call Justice Department officials to testify in the growing controversy.

"She proceeded for the next, it seemed like forever but it was probably only about 30 or 45 minutes, to bawl her eyes out and say, 'All I ever wanted to do was serve this president and this administration and this department,"' Margolis said of Goodling in his closed-door May 1 interview.

"I knew she must think everything was unraveling. And, you know, she was right about that," Margolis said.

Goodling is also at the center of an internal Justice Department inquiry into whether she considered whether prosecutors were Republicans before hiring them for career jobs, a violation of federal law.

Goodling's attorney, John Dowd, said she also has copies of documents pertaining to the inquiry that have not been publicly released — but needs approval from the Justice Department before handing them over to Congress. House Judiciary staffers shot back in a letter Tuesday that Goodling "must produce the responsive documents that you have acknowledged she currently possesses."

After a follow-up conversation with senior Judiciary aides, Dowd held his ground: "We further agreed to disagree."