DOJ Aide Goodling Will Take the Fifth

By Lee Russ

Monday, March 26, 2007 at 03:49 PM

Although resigned aide Kyle Sampson can't wait to testify about the US Attorney firings, fellow aide Monica Goodling plans to take the fifth amendment if called to testify before congress.

Rumor has it that Sampson's testimony will be milder than pablum, consisting largely of reiteration of the DOJ official line: all firings were performance related, not political, we just handled it badly.

Goodling appears to be at the opposite end of the spectrum. She was a high ranking aide who served as White House liaison for the DOJ and recently announced she was taking a personal leave of absence. This is followed by statements from her lawyer that she will refuse to testify on self-incrimination grounds.

Why? I don't kow, but consider this, for starters:

Goodling was one of five senior Justice Department aides who met with Gonzales for that Nov. 27 discussion. Department documents released Friday to Capitol Hill show she attended multiple meetings about the dismissals for months.

She also was among aides who on Feb. 5 helped Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty prepare his testimony for a Senate hearing the next day -- during which he may have given Congress incomplete or otherwise misleading information about the circumstances of the firings.

Additionally, Goodling was involved in an April 6, 2006, phone call between the Justice Department and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who had complained to the Bush administration and the president about David Iglesias, then the U.S. attorney in Albuquerque. Domenici wanted Iglesias to push more aggressively on a corruption probe against Democrats before the 2006 elections.

Goodling, for what it's worth, graduated in 1999 from Regent University Law School. That's the former "CBN University" started by Pat Robertson.

Graduated in 1999 and in 2007 is White House liaison. Rumor has it that she is Rove's eyes and voice in the DOJ, explaining how someone this young could have reached such a high position.