Posted on 04/04/2007 2:04:05 PM PDT by mtnwmn
Justice aide won't talk to House panel By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A senior Justice Department aide refused Wednesday to submit to a private interview with a House committee investigating the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
Her lawyers accused Democrats of behaving like the notorious Sen. Joseph McCarthy to intimidate her.
Lawyers for Monica Goodling, who has said she would assert her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid appearing at congressional hearings, told the House Judiciary Committee that she would neither testify publicly nor submit to private questioning about the firings.
Goodling was senior counsel to embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and was the department's White House liaison before she took a leave last month amid the uproar over the prosecutors' ousters. A Senate panel has authorized a subpoena for her, but none has been issued.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., asked Tuesday that Goodling submit to a closed-door interview on the matter, saying she had nothing to fear if she told the truth.
In a letter Wednesday responding to that request, Goodling's lawyers said her decision not to testify "can in no way be interpreted to suggest that Ms. Goodling herself participated in any criminal activity."
Conyers' and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record)'s "recent suggestions to the contrary are unfortunately reminiscent of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who infamously labeled those who asserted their constitutional right to remain silent before his committee 'Fifth Amendment Communists,'" wrote the lawyers, John Dowd and Jeffrey King.
They also warned Conyers against compelling their client to appear at a public hearing knowing of her intention to invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions.
"(I)t would be difficult to imagine a more fundamental abrogation of this committee's duty to uphold the Constitution than to punish those who seek its protection," the letter said.
Neither Conyers nor Leahy, D-Vt., had any immediate response to the letter.
Goodling's lawyers have said congressional attempts to get Goodling to testify are essentially a perjury trap for their client. They cite charges that Goodling misled Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty before he testified before Congress about the ousters, causing him to give an incomplete and possibly inaccurate account.
The letter cited several instances in which Congress has let witnesses in high-profile investigations assert their Fifth Amendment rights to stay silent, including the Iran-Contra affair, when Oliver North did so. North was later granted immunity for his testimony, and ultimately absolved of convictions for his misconduct in the arms-for-hostages scheme.
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Scooter Libby.
I would not go near a congressional investigation at this point, for ANY reason. If I didn't say what they wanted to hear, they'd charge me with perjury and send me to the Big House.
Ha ha. Leahy and Conyers are behaving like Senator McCarthy.
I bet that stung!
Smart girl, that one.
Not to mention the fact that her position utterly fails the "If she were a Democrat, how would FR respond?" test.
You got that right.
NEVER NEVER EVER would I testify before them, and I would tell everyone why. They don’t want the “truth”. This is another one of their Dog & Pony shows.
And the Dems who fled the country and took the Fifth did so before the Scooter Libby debacle.
If some congressional committee tried to interview me I don’t think I give them the time of day either.
A few years ago I stopped a bank robbery and the local as well as state media failed to get even one aspect of the ordeal correct. Though they all interviewed me as well as the cops and f.b.i. involved.
But she DID explain why she was invoking the fifth. And it wasn’t a refusal to provide testimony against herself - the only valid ground for invoking the fifth.
It is her right to invoke the 5th.
The Congressional GOP has never asked to question a rat for a non-crime.
There may be lots of hypocrisy in politics but it is past time to tell the RATS to go to Hell with their witchhunt.
If Republicans were sufficiently coordinated they’d repeat this McCarthy comparison, they’d make it a talking point because it’s apt, and they’d shove it up the Left’s ass! Here’s hoping...
I can’t imagine anyone wants to testify about anything since the Libby fiasco....why would they.
"The Congressional GOP has never asked to question a rat for a non-crime." You really believe this? Have some more kool-aid.
Um, if they were sufficiently coordinated they’d have a bit of a problem reconciling those attacks with the “McCarthy is an American hero” wing of the GOP.
Goodling, 33, is a 1995 graduate Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., an institution that describes itself as “committed to an embracing evangelical spirit.”
She received her law degree at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va. Regent, founded by Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson, says its mission is “to produce Christian leaders who will make a difference, who will change the world.”
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/16977359.htm
Can you name any official in the Clinton Administration who took the Fifth and retained their job?
Sorry, but in this particular instance, this Administration cannot simply point at the Clinton Administration and say "they were worse." Not that this is a legitimate defense anyway, except to about 1/2 the folks on FR. But no Clinton official at DOJ took the Fifth on anything.
I guess I'm the only one that sees the disconnect with an official at the Department of Justice standing on the Fifth.
And, let me state for the record that I most certainly do not agree with this statement - though I acknowledge that the vast crowd of relativist sheep here do agree with it.
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