Both in her opening statement and in further testimony, Goodling admitted to weeding out candidates for assistant U.S. attorney positions because they were not Republicans.
Under questioning from Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Goodling admitted that she did block the hiring of an assistant U.S. attorney in the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office because she judged him too liberal. “I made a snap judgment and I regret it,” she said. When Sanchez pressed as to how many times Goodling had done this, Goodling said she couldn’t come up with a number, and that she didn’t “feel like there were that many cases.”
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) later pressed her on whether she had committed a crime. “I don’t believe that I intended to commit a crime,” she said at first. Then, when he pressed, “I know I crossed the line of civil service rules.”
Did that mean she crossed the line of breaking the law, he asked? “I believe I crossed the line, but I didn’t mean to,” she said. Here’s video of that:
Here’s the transcript:
Rep. Robert C. Scott (D-VA): In your testimony, you indicate that you have — quote, may have taken inappropriate political considerations into account on some occasions. Do you believe that those political considerations were not just inappropriate, but in fact illegal?
Monica Goodling: That’s not a conclusion for me to make. I know I was acting…
Scott: (inaudible) Do you believe that they were legal or illegal for you to take those political considerations in mind? Not whether they were legal or illegal, what do you believe? Do you believe that they were illegal?
Goodling: I don’t believe I intended to commit a crime.
Scott: Did you break the law? Was it against the law to take those political considerations into account? You’ve got civil service laws. You’ve got obstruction of justice. Were there any laws that you could have broken by taking political considerations into account, quote, on some occasions?
Goodling: The best I can say is that I know I took political considerations into account on some occasions.
Scott: Was that legal?
Goodling: Sir, I’m not able to answer that question. I know I crossed the line.
Scott: What line — legal?
Goodling: I crossed the line of the civil service rules.
Scott: Rules — laws. You crossed the law on civil service laws. You crossed the line on civil service laws, is that right?
Goodling: I believe I crossed the lines. But I didn’t mean to. I mean, I…
Scott: OK.