Justice Aide: All Fingers Point My WayYou can read the letter from Monica Goodling’s lawyer to the Senate Judiciary Committee here.
Here’s her logic for pleading the Fifth in a nutshell: she won’t get a fair hearing because Democrats have already concluded DoJ officials lied to Congress and one Justice Department official has already admitted to Democrats that he was “not entirely candid” in his testimony and blamed Goodling and others for the lapse.
I’ll let Goodling’s lawyer lay out the case, but just to fill in the blank, the “senior Justice Department official” who fessed up to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that he was “not entirely candid” is likely Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty (Assistant Attorney General William Moschella also testified).
Here’s Schumer on Meet The Press last week:
SEN. SCHUMER: Paul McNulty himself, I know him, he called me on the phone and said, “I am sorry that I didn’t tell you the truth. I was not told that these things were happening by the people who were supposed to brief me.” Now, one of those people is Kyle Sampson, Kyle Sampson, the chief of staff to the attorney general. And Kyle Sampson says everyone knew what was going on here. We have to get to the bottom of this.
Update: Here’s Schumer on Goodling’s decision: “We are disappointed that we won’t hear Ms. Goodling’s testimony at the Judiciary Committee hearing, particularly given her two roles as senior member of Attorney General’s team and liaison to the White House. Each day brings new developments making it even more imperative to find out what happened.”
Update: We’ve fixed the bad link so you can read the full letter in the document collection now. Sorry!