Second Justice employee resigns

WASHINGTON — Monica Goodling resigned from the Justice Department Friday, marking the second departure in the wake of the administration's firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

Goodling was the department's liaison to the White House and an aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Her name appeared in numerous e-mails discussing the plan to fire the attorneys, along with Utah native D. Kyle Sampson, the attorney general's former chief of staff. He resigned last month as the scandal unfolded, along with other officials.

The Justice Department confirmed Goodling's resignation, effective today, and the office of her attorney, John Dowd, also confirmed her resignation but had no other comments. She had been on leave from the department since last month.

Goodling worked with Sampson to compile the list of attorneys to be fired, as well as on congressional testimony for deputy attorney general Paul McNulty, which eventually led to an ongoing investigation into the matter and calls for Gonzales' resignation.

McNulty told Congress the firings were "performance-based," but the attorneys forced to resign were told something different and had good performance records. Some also testified before Congress that there may have been political undertones to their terminations, based on cases they were handling at the time.

Goodling attorneys said they advised her to use her Fifth Amendment rights after they learned McNulty had talked with senators after he initially testified on the issues and "blamed Ms. Goodling and others for failing to inform him of pertinent facts prior to his testimony."

"Mr. McNulty's allegation that Ms. Goodling and others caused him to give inaccurate testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee is a sufficient predicate for Ms. Goodling's invocation of her Fifth Amendment privilege," the attorneys wrote.

Goodling's resignation came late Friday, at a time when things are usually quiet in Washington, with Congress on recess and many out of town for the Easter holiday. The resignation also followed a series of letters exchanged between her attorneys and the House Judiciary Committee, insisting they leave Goodling alone.

Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., wanted Goodling to talk in a closed-door interview about the firings and said she would have to use her Fifth Amendment rights on a question-by-question basis. But her attorneys shot back saying she does not have to do that and also emphasizing that just because Goodling pled the Fifth does not mean she has done anything wrong.

Sampson testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month and Gonzales is schedule to appear before the same committee on April 17.

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