Goodling rejects new plea to testify

WASHINGTON — In response to a second attempt by lawmakers to get her to talk, Justice Department official Monica Goodling's attorneys told Congress on Wednesday that she will not speak about her role in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

Goodling, the attorney general's special counsel and the Justice Department's White House liaison, appears in several e-mails sent to D. Kyle Sampson discussing plans to fire attorneys. She said last month that she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right and not talk about the matter.

But House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich. and Commercial Administrative Law Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., sent a letter Tuesday to Goodling's attorneys, requesting "her cooperation in closed-door interviews."

In response, Goodling's attorneys John Dowd and Jeffrey King called the Conyers and Sanchez letter a threat, saying suggestions that Goodling's use of the Fifth Amendment means she participated in criminal activity "are unfortunately reminiscent of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who infamously labeled those who asserted their constitutional right to remain silent before his committee 'Fifth Amendment Communists.'"

"It would be difficult to imagine a more fundamental abrogation of this committee's duty to uphold the Constitution than to punish those who seek its protection," they wrote.

The Justice Department released thousands of e-mails last month as Congress investigates how the department decided to fire eight U.S. attorneys last year.

Sampson, a Utah native, resigned as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff last month and testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. Goodling is on leave from the department, according to her attorneys.

Goodling's name appears in hundreds of the e-mails including one sent to Sampson on Sept. 13, 2006, where she recommends "removing W.D.N.C. from Section V. — there are plenty of others there to start with, and I don't think she merits being included in that group at this time."

She was referring to a section of Sampson's circulated list of recommended attorneys to be replaced. Sampson clarified in his testimony last week that Goodling was talking about the Middle District of North Carolina, not the Western District of North Carolina as referenced in the e-mail. Sampson said Goodling suggested keeping that attorney, Anna Mills Wagoner, on because she had done good work in organizing a gang conference among other things.