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LOS ANGELES, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Glee creator Ryan Murphy has cast two stars for his upcoming FX miniseries, American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson, a dramatization of the double murder case that captivated the nation in 1995. Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire) will play O.J. Simpson, the football star accused of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and waiter Ronald Lyle Goldman. Sarah Paulson, who worked with Murphy on American Horror Story, will play prosecutor Marcia Clarke.

New York (AP) -- No criminal prosecutions are planned for former Justice Department officials accused of allowing politics to influence the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday. Mukasey used his sharpest words yet to criticize the senior leaders who took part in or failed to stop illegal hiring practices during the tenure of his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales. But, he told delegates to the American Bar Association annual meeting, "Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only...

Former Justice Department counselor Monica M. Goodling and former chief of staff D. Kyle Sampson routinely broke the law by conducting political litmus tests on candidates for jobs as immigration judges and line prosecutors, according to an inspector general's report released today. Goodling passed over hundreds of qualified applicants and squashed the promotions of others after deeming candidates insufficiently loyal to the Republican party, said investigators, who interviewed 85 people and received information from 300 other job seekers at Justice. Sampson developed a system to screen immigration judge candidates based on improper political considerations and routinely took recommendations from the...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Justice Department is investigating U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's meeting with a former top aide about the controversial firing of federal prosecutors last year, according to a letter released on Thursday by the Senate Judiciary committee. In testimony before the House Judiciary committee, the former aide, Monica Goodling, said Gonzales told her about his recollections of the dismissals in March, shortly before she resigned. Gonzales, in earlier testimony before the committee, said he had not gone back to talk to staff involved in the firings "in order to protect the integrity" of the investigations....

--snip--It took the conservative political movement 30 years to become a fixture in American politics, and it's taken evangelicals about the same. Like conservatives, evangelicals may remain chronically ambivalent, afflicted with a persecution complex despite their obvious successes. But they are embedded firmly enough into Washington to provide jobs for smart young Christians for generations to come.

WASHINGTON -- Two and a half hours into her testimony about U.S. attorney firings before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, former Justice Department liaison to the White House Monica Goodling was questioned by U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. Much of his questioning dealt with Goodling's education at the Regent University School of Law founded by television evangelist Pat Robertson. Goodling was counsel to Atty. Gen Alberto Gonzales before resigning in April. She testified after being offered immunity from prosecution for any wrongdoing she might admit. Cohen: The mission of the law school you attended, Regent, is "to bring to bear...

<p>WASHINGTON — Former Justice Department official Monica Goodling told lawmakers Wednesday she wanted to "set the record straight," blaming deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty for misleading Congress about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.</p> <p>Goodling, speaking out in public for the first time, denied playing a major role in the dismissals in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.</p>

A federal judge approved an immunity deal Friday allowing former Justice Department aide Monica Goodling to testify before Congress about the firing of eight federal prosecutors. Goodling, who served as the department's White House liaison, has refused to discuss the firings without a guarantee that she will not be prosecuted. Congress agreed to the deal, Justice Department investigators reluctantly agreed not to oppose it and U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan gave it final approval Friday. "Monica Goodling may not refuse to testify," Hogan began his brief order, which said that Goodling could not be prosecuted for anything other than perjury...

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department will not try to prevent Congress from granting immunity to a former department official to testify about the firing of eight federal prosecutors. In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., officials from two Justice Department offices investigating whether the department played politics when hiring prosecutors said they would prefer not to see the department's former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, given immunity. "However, we understand the committee's interest in obtaining Ms. Goodling's testimony," the letter said. "Therefore after balancing the significant public interest against the impact of...

A House committee voted Wednesday to grant immunity to Monica Goodling, a key aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. She had refused to testify, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The 32-6 vote by the House Judiciary Committee surpassed the 2/3 majority required to grant a witness immunity from prosecution. A separate vote to authorize a subpoena for Goodling passed by voice vote. Democrats said the votes were necessary tools to force into the open the story of why the prosecutors were fired and whether they were singled out to influence corruption...

Immunity Considered for Ex-Gonzales Aide Laurie Kellman April 17, 2007 WASHINGTON (AP) - 0415dv-fired-prosecutors The House Judiciary Committee is set to vote on whether to grant Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former counsel immunity from prosecution and force her to testify about the firings of eight federal prosecutors. "I am hopeful we can approve immunity so that we can schedule her to testify as soon as possible and begin to clear up the many inconsistencies and gaps surrounding this matter," Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said in a statement Tuesday. A two-thirds vote of the panel is required to approve the resolution,...

April 16, 2007 -- Republican White House hopeful Rudy Giuliani will speak tomorrow at the university founded by televangelist Pat Robertson, a major appearance for the former mayor before a conservative crowd. Several hundred people have registered to size up Giuliani, who holds liberal social views but is casting himself as the campaign's true "fiscal conservative." He will be introduced at Regent University by Robertson - who in 2005 said Giuliani would make "a good president."

Sources tell TIME that discussions are under way on "Capitol Hill about whether to offer just such a deal to the key former aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The discussions — still largely informal — follow Goodling's assertion of her Fifth Amendment privilege to refuse to testify about her role in the controversial firings. Were Goodling to receive some form of immunity, she could be legally compelled to testify or risk facing charges of contempt of Congress."