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Gonzales aide invokes the Fifth

An aide to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Monday invoked her constitutional right to refuse to testify before a Senate panel investigating the removal of eight US attorneys, her lawyer told the committee.

The aide, Monica Goodling, the Justice Department's White House liaison, who helped coordinate the dismissals, asserted her Fifth Amendment protection against compelled self-incrimination in a letter that her lawyer sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In the letter, Goodling's lawyer, John Dowd, questioned the fairness of the panel and cited the possibility that she might be a witness in a criminal inquiry, although there is currently no known criminal investigation into the dismissals.

A Justice Department official said senior agency officials were "concerned" about Goodling's refusal to testify because "we had agreed to make Department of Justice officials available to the committee." The official said Goodling, who is on leave, had not obtained advance approval for her decision.

Several Justice Department officials are expected to testify to Senate and House committees, beginning with Kyle Sampson, who was Gonzales' chief of staff and Goodling's immediate superior. Sampson has agreed to appear voluntarily at the Senate hearing tomorrow.

Sampson's lawyer, Bradford Berenson, said in a statement on Monday night in response to news of the Goodling decision, "Kyle plans to testify fully, truthfully and publicly."

People briefed on Sampson's view of events say he believes there were clear errors in communication about the dismissals, including some misstatements by Gonzales, but no deliberate effort to mislead Congress.

Several other Justice Department officials, including Gonzales and Paul McNulty, the deputy attorney general, will also appear voluntarily, although the panels have authorized subpoenas for their testimony.

In his letter to Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the judiciary panel, Dowd, who specializes in white-collar criminal defense,wrote that some lawmakers on the panel "have already reached conclusions about the matter under investigation."

"The hostile and questionable environment that has been created by members of the Judiciary Committee in the present proceedings," Dowd said, "is at best ambiguous; more accurately the environment can be described as legally perilous for Ms. Goodling."

Leahy expressed dismay.

"It is disappointing that Ms. Goodling had decided to withhold her important testimony from the committee as it pursues its investigation into this matter," he said in a statement.

In his letter, Dowd said he had learned about a conversation between an unidentified Justice Department official, who is said by officials to be McNulty, and Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, who has led the congressional inquiry into the dismissals.
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