Gonzales to testify on attorney firings

Sampson spearheaded the department's list of which attorneys should be fired, according to thousands of pages of e-mails and his own testimony before the Senate committee. He discussed which attorneys should be on the list with Justice Department employees and White House counsel Harriet Miers, according to the e-mails, but it is not certain what criteria was used to determine who should stay or go.

Goodling, who resigned from the department as the White House liaison earlier this month, also discussed the list of attorneys with Sampson, and the pair worked on congressional testimony for Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General William Moschella about the firings. It was in that testimony that the initial inconsistencies occurred that sparked the controversy.

"They inaccurately indicated that White House involvement in the U.S. attorney termination was minimal," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., Wednesday.

Goodling, through her attorneys, has said she will invoke her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and not testify about her role in the process.

Conyers wants the committee to approve immunity for Goodling to "compel" her to testify. If the committee approved it, the House General Counsel would apply for a court order for immunity that would make her testify but nothing could be used against her for prosecution "as long as the information is truthful," Conyers said.

"I believe it is appropriate for us to begin the legal process for securing Ms. Goodling's testimony over her expected Fifth Amendment assertion."

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the committee's top Republican, thanked Conyers for agreeing to postpone the vote until next week, saying Gonzales' testimony and more interviews may be able to give them the information they need.

Moschella and McNulty are slated to be interviewed by the committees this week.

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