The Daily Background

The White House and the DoJ have been fairly inconsistent throughout this whole US Attorney firing scandal so far. They keep changing their story, but one thing that has been consistent is their claims that no laws have been violated, although many suspect there was improper political maneuvering behind the scenes. Yes, there may be some perjury issues when some officals testified before the Senate in January, but that’s another matter altogether.

Well, all that might be about to change. Why? Because one of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ top aides, Monica Goodling, is invoking the Fifth Amendment. You know, the one that people are only allowed to use when they don’t want to incriminate themselves. Among the other famous people to have plead the Fifth before Congress: Ken Lay. And that asshole was guilty as sin.

Up until now there’s been no allegations that anything illegal has happened in the firing of these US Attorneys. But all of a sudden we have a key official who was high up in the DoJ (she’s been on paid leave after the scandal broke) saying she is afraid to testify before Congress because she might incriminate herself. And it’s not just her making this decision; she says she was following her lawyers’ advice. It’s especially odd that she would plead the fifth because Congress can’t convict anybody or anything– rather her testimony before Congress could be used as evidence later on in court. Also key, this from the Washington Post today:

Monica M. Goodling — who is on an indefinite leave of absence from Gonzales’s office — also alleges in a sworn declaration that a “senior Department of Justice official” has admitted he was “not entirely candid” in his Senate testimony and has blamed Goodling and others for not fully briefing him.

The declaration does not identify the senior official, but says the admission was made to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of the Senate Judiciary panel who is leading the U.S. attorneys probe. The only two Justice officials who have testified in front of that committee about the firings are Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty.

Senior DoJ official hasn’t been entirely candid with the Senate? It’s obviously McNulty she’s talking about (although it could easily apply Gonzales as well, but that’s not who she’s talking about). Supposedly Gonzales was furious withh the Deputy Attorney General after he told Congress some stuff that seems now not to be true, and was worried as hell after he read about McNulty’s testimony.

Laura Rozen quotes a Democratic lawyer as saying “Republican Senators aren’t going to like the spectacle of a former Justice Department official invoking the Fifth - and Senator Leahy will make her appear and take the Fifth.” Pat Leahy (D-VT), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee issued the following statement on the matter:

“It is disappointing that Ms. Goodling has decided to withhold her important testimony from the Committee as it pursues its investigation into this matter, but everybody has the constitutional right not to incriminate themselves with regard to criminal conduct.

“The American people are left to wonder what conduct is at the base of Ms. Goodling’s concern that she may incriminate herself in connection with criminal charges if she appears before the Committee under oath.”

Also, and this is just a side note, remember when Gonzales said last Thursday that “I’m not going to resign. I’m going to stay focused on protecting our kids”? The statement seemed quite odd at the time because the kids part was totally random. Well it seems like his last-ditch attempt to save his job hinges on building a new persona as a defender of children. I’ve learned that the Department of Justice has sent out multiple press releases to media organizations about brand new efforts to protect children from predators- something the Attorney General was not particularly exactly waging a big PR war on before this scandal broke.

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