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US attorney general did discuss case: former aide

Former Justice Department White House liaison Monica Goodling smiles on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee. PHOTO: AP

A former Justice Department official said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tried to review his version of the dismissals of eight federal prosecutors with her at a time when lawmakers were homing in on conflicting accounts. Gonzales had testified he had not spoken with witnesses.

"It made me a little uncomfortable," Monica Goodling, Gonzales' former White House liaison, told a House of Representatives committee of her conversation with the attorney general just before she took a leave of absence in March.

"I just did not know if it was appropriate for us to both be discussing our recollections of what had happened," she said.

In a daylong appearance before the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee, Goodling, 33, also acknowledged crossing a legal line herself by considering the party affiliations of candidates for career prosecutor jobs. In the US, that is a violation of federal law.

Democrats and some Republicans are demanding Gonzales' resignation in part over the firings. President George W. Bush is standing by his longtime friend, but Democrats have pressed ahead with their probe. They contend the firings may have been an attempt to exploit a loophole in the anti-terrorist Patriot Act to install Republican loyalists as prosecutors without Senate confirmation.

Gonzales has denied that. The furor has been costly nonetheless: Goodling and Kyle Sampson, the attorney general's former chief of staff, have resigned because of it. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, too, is leaving later this year. And many lawmakers who have not demanded Gonzales' resignation directly say he has lost their confidence.

In her testimony, Goodling said McNulty knew more than he had testified to when he did not disclose to Congress the extent of White House involvement in deciding which prosecutors to fire. McNulty strongly denied that he withheld information, saying Goodling did not fully brief him about the White House's involvement.

Goodling's story about her final conversation with Gonzales brought questions from panel members about whether he had tried to align her story with his and whether he was truthful in his own testimony.

Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that he did not know the answers to some questions about the firings because he was steering clear of aides who were likely to be questioned.
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