TPMmuckraker | Talking Points Memo | Measuring the Politicization

Measuring the Politicization

By Paul Kiel - May 23, 2007, 3:52PM

Monica Goodling admitted "crossing the line" earlier in her testimony with regard to hiring assistant U.S. attorneys based on their political affiliations. That's against the law. Assistant U.S. attorneys are the prosecutors in the U.S. attorney offices across the country that actually prosecute the cases.

But how many federal prosecutors were submitted to Goodling's litmus test? Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) asked was it fewer than 50, more than 50? Goodling couldn't say. "I can't think that I could have done it more than 50 times, but I don't know."

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) asked Goodling if she looked at the political contributions made by applicants for AUSA positions. Goodling said that she'd done that for other non-political career positions and may have done it for prosecutors, too: she couldn't "rule that out."

Here's the transcript:

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA): Who's paying for your lawyers?

Monica Goodling: I'm paying for them.

Rep. Johnson: Has anyone agreed to reimburse you for legal fees?

Goodling: No. I intend to establish a legal defense fund at some point, but I haven't had the chance to do that yet.

Rep. Johnson: Well, ma'am, let me ask you this…How many times did you use that power that you had to hire and fire with respect to hiring of U.S. -- assistant U.S. attorneys and you used political reasons for making a decision not to hire? How many times did you do that?

Goodling: I can't give you an estimate.

Rep. Johnson: Would you say less than 50 or more than 50?

Goodling: I hesitate to give you a reason, just because I can't -- or, an estimate, because I can't remember. I don't think that I could have done it more than 50 times, but I don't know. I just -- there were times when people came to the department and they were interested in career positions or political positions. And those people, I certainly asked political questions of…I was involved in career hiring in a number of different ways, sometimes because people would come in and they would be interested in different sorts of positions at the same time. And they would sometimes get asked political questions. When I was looking at waiver requests for AUSA positions...

Rep. Johnson: OK, this is non-responsive to my question.

Goodling: I did not normally ask questions.

Rep. Johnson: All right. Thank you. Now, did the attorney general know that you were asking political questions of applicants for career positions?

Goodling: I don't believe that he knew.

Rep. Johnson: Did the deputy attorney general know that you were asking those kinds of questions of applicants for career positions?

Goodling: I'm sorry -- it depends on the category. I'm sorry. I was just involved in too many different categories of personnel things to give you straight answers that are going to apply to each one.

Rep. Johnson: Well, let me ask you this question, then: Who knew that you were asking -- let me ask it this way. Did you discuss the fact that you were asking political questions of applicants for career positions with any of the following: the attorney general, yes or no?

Goodling: Discuss it, no. I did receive resumes from him of Republicans.

Rep. Johnson: Did you -- the deputy attorney general, yes or no?

Goodling: I don't know.

Rep. Johnson: The associate attorney general or the acting associate attorney general.

Rep. Conyers: The gentleman's time has expired, but please answer the questions.

Goodling: I don't know specifically, but I do know that I did interview detailees for their offices, and I think that they had a sense that I was looking for people that were generally Republicans to work on their staffs as detailees, and those were people who currently held career positions. So in that category, I would think they had a general sense of that.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA): OK. Also, in looking at the nonpolitical appointees, you've talked about doing Web searches. And I know that you had, you know, used Google or LexisNexis, see what was in the press.
There are, also, though, some particular Web sites that just focus on people's political contributions. In looking at nonpolitical appointments, did you ever look at FEC.com or TRE.com (ph) or any of the other sites that are pretty much focused on political giving?

Goodling: Occasionally. Not terribly often. It frankly wasn't very common to find people in the law enforcement area that were active on that site. But, yes, we did in some cases check those records.

Comments (152)

Lee Stranahan wrote on May 23, 2007 3:55 PM:

And - since she said that, a number of GOP have made little speeches about how political considerations are perfectly normal and this is all a plot to make politics illegal.

Rebel wrote on May 23, 2007 3:58 PM:

So money matters. What else is new with Republicans?

Britisher wrote on May 23, 2007 4:00 PM:

Davis was brilliant! He took some of the supposed reasons for firing USAs ( low morale, bad management) and justice priciples ( telling the truth)...got Goodling to agree these were all good reasons to fire and then he applied them to Gonazalez...ergo by Monicas statements and standards Gonzalez should be fired! Brilliant!

SamSara wrote on May 23, 2007 4:03 PM:

50, 500, 5,000,000... What does it matter? She has immunity.

Biggus Diggus wrote on May 23, 2007 4:04 PM:

What was the point of giving her immunity? We can't get a straight answer from her. Her memory seems to be as faulty as Kyle Sampson's or Gonzo's.

I think this is the Rove strategy. Get the goodly underlings immunity and make them the firewall -- use them as a heat shield, then maybe reward them later in their careers with cushy jobs.

Both Sampson and Goodling are not being straight. They are being very legal and parsing words in their answers.

screw wrote on May 23, 2007 4:07 PM:

So. Monica is paying for it herself, via a legal defense fund, which she was too busy over the last UNEMPLOYED MONTH to establish.

So if she testifies and doesn't get anyone into hot water, they will pay for her legal fees. If she sells them out, she's paying for Dowd.

Ducky wrote on May 23, 2007 4:08 PM:

I am so very embarassed of the government of the country I live in. I cannot call it my governement because I do not believe it has anything to representing its citizens. The government of my country died in the 2000 election.

sc: glove: I remember another embarassment for this country concerning a glove. He was a criminal that got off too.

Sierra T wrote on May 23, 2007 4:32 PM:

I know that judicial immunity limits criminal prosecution, but as she has admitted breaking the law by taking political affiliation into hiring considerations, can she be disbarred?

Can she be disbarred for breaking the law despite the immunity?

Restore Honor
Oust the GOP

Pompano Pete Jr wrote on May 23, 2007 5:03 PM:

So, you're a lawyer(?) and you've been given the authority to hire people all throughout the DOJ, right? And you have never done this before, right? Wouldn't a reasonable manager, let alone a "trained lawyer" brush up on the law applicable to that activity?

WTFWJD?

Moi wrote on May 23, 2007 5:12 PM:

Just what is a person who is so young doing in a position of power like that in the first place? That in and of itself speaks volumes.

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It would be interesting to see the server logs of those sites mentioned. Every one of those searches Goodling mentioned was probably recorded and retained. A subpoena plus a little bit of work could uncover some new names and numbers, perhaps.

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