LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

..just in time for Blog Against Theocracy Weekend..lol

Goodling said she would invoke 5th Amendment if called before Congress

From MSNBC
BREAKING NEWS
The Associated Press
2:22 p.m. PT April 6, 2007

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' top aide, who refused to testify before Congress about her role in the politically charged firing of eight U.S. attorneys, abruptly quit her job Friday.

"I am hereby submitting my resignation to the office of attorney general," Monica M. Goodling said in a three-sentence letter. There was no immediate reason given for her departure, but Goodling's refusal to face Congress intensified a controversy that threatens Gonzales' job.

Asserting her right under the U.S. Constitution not to incriminate herself, Goodling rejected demands last month for a private interview with a House of Representatives committee investigating the firings.

Goodling was senior counsel to Gonzales and was the department's White House liaison before she took a leave amid the uproar over the prosecutors' ousters.

Calling her five-year stint at Justice an honor, Goodling told Gonzales in her letter, "May God bless your richly as you continue your service to America."

Goodling is at the center of the controversy because, as the bridge between the Justice Department and the White House, she may be best suited to explain how deeply Karl Rove and other members of President Bush's political team might have been involved in the firings. Congress also wants her to testify on Gonzales' role in light of his shifting explanations.

Her resignation comes less than two weeks before Gonzales' own planned testimony to Congress, which may determine his fate as attorney general. Several Republican lawmakers have joined Democrats in expressing deep dissatisfaction with him over the firings and other matters at Justice.

"The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real," said her lawyer, John Dowd, on March 26 when he announced she would invoke her protections.

He said that members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees seem already to have made up their minds that wrongdoing has occurred in the firings.

Goodling was subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee along with several of Gonzales' other top aides.

Questions about misinformation

There have been questions about whether Goodling and others misinformed Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty about the firings just before he testified before the Senate committee in February.

Dowd said that a senior Justice Department official had told a member of the Senate committee that he was misled by Goodling and others before testifying.

The potential for taking the blame for the department's bungled response "is very real," Dowd said March 26. "One need look no further than the recent circumstances and proceedings involving Lewis Libby," he said, a reference to the recent conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff in the CIA leak case.

~I'll wager this is related to the whole brawl in Minneapolis.