Goodling regrets mistakes

Monica Goodling, a former liaison between the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the White House, testified yesterday that she “crossed the line” in asking political questions of applicants for career positions, such as assistant U.S. attorneys, immigration judges and members of the Board of Immigration Appeal.

“I do acknowledge that I may have gone too far in asking political questions of applicants for career positions, and I may have taken inappropriate political considerations into account on some occasions,” said Goodling. “And I regret those mistakes.”

{mosads}Goodling had planned to invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, but then received immunity in exchange for her testimony.  

During more than five hours of testimony with the House Judiciary Committee, she argued that she didn’t have a decision-making role in the 2006 firings of eight U.S. attorneys, and that she was unaware that any of the firings were a form of political retribution.

Goodling described herself as “a fairly quiet person” who tries to do the right thing and “treat people kindly along the way.” She also called herself a “Type A” woman who aggressively and diligently pursued the assignments given to her.

She said she had chosen to attend Christian universities because of their commitment to public service, and at one point choked up while saying she did not want to speak ill of her former colleagues.

In one key exchange, she said that former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty “was not fully candid” about his knowledge of White House involvement in the replacement decisions, and that he failed to disclose what he knew about the White House’s interest in selecting Tim Griffin as the interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Arkansas and his knowledge of allegations about Griffin’s work on the president’s 2004 campaign.

McNulty and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General William Moschella have told lawmakers that Goodling misled them as she helped prepare them for congressional testimony about the U.S. attorney firings that each provided in February and March.  

McNulty, who will leave the DoJ at the end of the summer, also disputed her testimony yesterday.

“I testified truthfully at the Feb. 6, 2007, hearing based on what I knew at that time,” he said in a statement. “Ms. Goodling’s characterization of my testimony is wrong and not supported by the extensive record of documents and testimony already provided to Congress.”

In another exchange, Goodling described a meeting she had with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that made her “a little uncomfortable” after the public flap about whether he had made misstatements to the press about his role in the firings.

The two met when Goodling requested a transfer out of his office after becoming distraught by the public controversy over the firings. She said Gonzales asked her about her recollection of why the prosecutors were fired, offering his perspective that they all had been fired for performance-based reasons, including H.E. “Bud” Cummins, whom Griffin replaced.

Not knowing whether the conversation was appropriate, she said she did not respond with her own recollection.

Goodling also stated that she had only limited information about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year, which she gleaned while working periodically on the matter with Kyle Sampson, who was then chief of staff for Gonzales.

When asked who was responsible for putting the names of U.S. attorneys on the list to be fired, Goodling said she knew Sampson was responsible — and that he did not tell her how it was compiled.

 “Mr. Sampson compiled the list … I do know that he spoke to the deputy attorney general about it and he presented it to the attorney general,” she said.

Despite her title as DoJ White House liaison, she insisted that she was not the primary contact to the White House on the issue and never had discussed the firings with Bush adviser Karl Rove or former White House Counsel Harriet Miers.     

“I have never attended a meeting of the White House Judicial Selection Committee,” she testified. “The attorney general and Kyle Sampson attended those meetings.”

Goodling resigned from her position after the U.S. attorney issue blew up earlier this year. She said her primary role in the affair was not compiling the list of U.S. attorneys to be let go, but rather dealing with the fallout from the firings.

Later in the testimony, Rep. Robert “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.) asked whether she believed she had broken any laws by asking political questions of career applicants.

“The best I can say is that I know I took political considerations into account, I know I crossed the line,” Goodling responded.

Goodling also admitted delaying the hiring of Seth Adam Meinero for a post in the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia because of a “snap judgment” about his résumé that she said she now regrets. Meinero is a Howard University law graduate who worked at the Environmental Protection Agency, and Democratic lawmakers said that Goodling had deemed him too liberal for the post.         

After interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeff Taylor complained to senior officials about Goodling’s attempt to block Meinero, she said she allowed him to be hired. The DoJ’s inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility then launched investigations into Goodling for possible violations of civil-service laws, which guard against politicizing the selection process of career positions at the department.