Justice Dept. OKs immunity for Goodling in firing scandal

Internal investigators at the Justice Department yesterday gave a reluctant green light to lawmakers to grant immunity to former Justice aide Monica Goodling in exchange for her testimony on the U.S. attorney firings scandal.

Justice’s inspector general and its Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) are conducting a joint inquiry of whether Goodling, as White House liaison and counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, improperly steered prosecutor positions to Republican lawyers. While that inquiry gave Justice the right to object to Goodling’s immunity deal with Democrats, the department opted to OK it.

{mosads} “As in any investigation that potentially could involve evidence of criminal conduct, we would prefer that any potential subject not be granted immunity at this stage … However, we understand the committee’s interest in obtaining Ms. Goodling’s testimony,” the inspector general, Glenn Fine, and OPR counsel Marshall Jarrett wrote to senior House Judiciary Committee members.

House Judiciary members are moving quickly to apply for a court order on Goodling’s immunity and schedule her to testify, panel Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said through a spokesman.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the upper chamber’s subcommittee chairman with jurisdiction over the prosecutors probe, reminded Justice of what Goodling’s lawyer noted last week: Even its objection could not stop the immunity deal from going forward.

“It’s good that the Justice Department didn’t object … but this investigation was going to proceed with or without their approval, which is not legally necessary,” Schumer said in a statement.

Gonzales, meanwhile, will appear Thursday before Conyers’s committee.