A graphic with a May 24 Page One article about Monica M. Goodling, former senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, incorrectly attributed remarks from a February Senate hearing to Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty. It was Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) who said at the hearing: "In the summer of 2006, my office was told by reliable sources in the Arkansas legal and political community that then-U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins was resigning and the White House would nominate Mr. Tim Griffin as his replacement. I asked the reasons for Mr. Cummins's leaving and was informed that he was doing so to pursue other opportunities. ..... [By August, it was] becoming clear that Mr. Cummins was being forced out, contrary to what my office had been told by the administration." McNulty made remarks on the same subject at the hearing. In response to inquiries about how Tim Griffin, an aide to Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, was put in the job on an interim basis, McNulty said, "I don't know the answers to those questions." Goodling told Congress this week that she had kept McNulty informed about Griffin.
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Goodling Says She 'Crossed the Line'
"I do acknowledge that I may have gone too far in asking political questions of applicants for career positions," Monica Goodling testified.
(By Chip Somodevilla -- Getty Images)
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She said that D. Kyle Sampson, then Gonzales's chief of staff, had told her she did not have to abide by restrictions on weighing political affiliations in those positions. The department's Civil Division later raised objections and froze hiring for the immigration courts in December, she said.
Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said yesterday that reforms were implemented and hiring has resumed.
In addition to the inquiry into the prosecutor firings, the department's inspector general and professional responsibility offices have begun to investigate whether Goodling may have broken federal laws or internal rules by weighing political affiliations in career hiring decisions.
Goodling offered a few new details about some of the U.S. attorneys who were fired, saying that she had recommended removing Daniel Bogden of Nevada and Paul K. Charlton of Arizona in January 2006. They were included on a draft list at that time but were not passed on to the White House as candidates for firing until later in the year.
House Republicans stood steadfastly behind Goodling, even as she repeatedly apologized for weighing political affiliation.
"There not only is no evidence of wrongdoing, but there is no allegation of any wrongdoing on your part," Rep. Steve King (Iowa) told her.
Staff writer Amy Goldstein and staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.
