Judge signs off on Goodling immunity

Federal Judge Thomas Hogan approved an immunity deal Friday for former Justice Department official Monica Goodling to testify before Congress.  

Members of the House Judiciary Committee had negotiated the deal with Goodling, who has refused to testify about her and others’ role in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year unless she received a guarantee that she would not be prosecuted. Justice Department officials agreed to the deal this week and U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan signed off on it Friday.

{mosads}Under the immunity deal, Goodling now must testify before Congress, and she cannot be prosecuted for anything other than perjury for what she says.

Democrats in Congress have spent the last two months investigating the reasons for the federal prosecutors’ dismissals and whether politics played any role in them. The Justice Department has denied that the U.S. attorneys were fired because the administration’s political arm wanted to interfere with particular cases that were politically sensitive.

According to the Washington Post, however, they have refused to give Democrats access to e-mails from White House political adviser Karl Rove about the matter.

“Monica Goodling is a critical witness to this ongoing investigation,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) said in a statement. “We look forward to hearing her testimony as promptly as possible.”

The statement also noted that 32 of the House Judiciary Committee’s 40 members, more than the two-thirds required, approved the resolution authorizing the chairman to seek the immunity order on April 25.