Monica Goodling Testifies before House Judiciary - live blogging
It starts with a kabuki dance about her pro forma assertion of her Fifth Amendment rights. She claims it; then he waives it.
She starts by calling DAG McNulty “not fully candid” on the Griffin-Cummins spot.
She claims not to be the primary White House contact on the matter, and that she never spoke to Rove nor Miers about the US Attorneys.
She claims not to know why six of them were put on the list, deferring to “final decision-makers.”
And, she was a friggin’ Eagle Scout too, only interested in public service, a good person, etc. etc.
On DAG McNulty. He downplayed the WH involvement in the firings when he testified. “They were involved in the sign-off.” We met every week about US Attorney vacancies and candidates. “I am not sure I knew who in the WH wanted …”
She told Sampson, Moschella, Elston that McNulty’s testimony was incomplete.
The GOP Congressmen throw dust about Murtha and fishing expeditions.
Nadler asks what crimes she committed that caused her to plead the Fifth. “What McNulty said about my role in briefing him.” Nadler points out a direct contradiction between her written statement and McNulty’s testimony.
Performance: “The EERS evaluations are about the office, not about the US Attorney. But the person with info about a USA’s performance would be people at main Justice.”
She continues to play the party line on the whole matter. Basically no one came up with the list.
Mel Watt pushes Goodling to admit that she recommended to Kyle Sampson (not the WH) that a certain USA come off the list.
Goodling admits that Graves’ name was on the list, but not because he wasn’t pushing voter fraud. “If I made the phone call [about Graves], then it would have been at Sampson’s request. I didn’t have that kind of authority.”
“Carol Lam was a topic of frequent conversations, esp. in regard to immigration and gun crime prosecutions. I don’t remember anything about her being fired for prosecuting Duke Cunningham.”
Maxine Waters: “Why did you resign?” … “Because I no longer could be effective working with US Attorneys.”
Delahunt: “Why were you delegated such authority, which cut out the DAG? … Why specifically exclude him from being informed?”
Goodling granted immunity
“Nothing Illegal” - Can we put a stake in that?
Monica Wept
On Goodling’s Immunity
Goodling gets going when the going is good - on Good Friday afternoon