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Aide to Gonzales Won't Testify
Monica Goodling said she did not want to testify before a Senate committee because she thinks some Democrats, including Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), left, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), have already "drawn conclusions."
(By Stephanie Kuykendal -- Bloomberg News)
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House and Senate Democrats said they were disappointed that Goodling would not testify. Several raised questions about her motives.
"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," said Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Goodling contended in her affidavit yesterday that Leahy and other lawmakers, including Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-Calif.), had already "drawn conclusions" about the prosecutors' firings.
Dowd said the "hostile and questionable environment in the present Congressional proceedings is at best ambiguous; more accurately, the environment can be described as legally perilous for Ms. Goodling."
The Justice Department declined to comment on Goodling's move.
Gonzales agreed earlier this month to allow aides to be interviewed privately without being subpoenaed. But Sampson and Battle no longer work for Justice, and Goodling is on leave.
In the House yesterday, a provision stripping the attorney general of the power to appoint interim U.S. attorneys indefinitely without Senate confirmation passed overwhelmingly, following a 94 to 2 vote in the Senate last week. The bill strikes a provision inserted into the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act at the behest of the Justice Department. The White House has signaled that Bush will sign the bill.
In an interview last night with NBC News, Gonzales said attacks on his credibility "have pained me and my family" but said he will stay "as long as I have the confidence of the president."
"I think that every Cabinet official has to ask themselves every day, 'Is it still appropriate for me to lead a Cabinet department?' " he said. "It's something that I've been asking myself more lately than perhaps others."
Staff writer Peter Baker and washingtonpost.com staff writer Paul Kane contributed to this report.
