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The Honorable Alberto \tGonzales<\/strong> Dear Attorney General \tGonzales:<\/p>\n As you are aware, Monica \tGoodling has indicated that she will assert her Fifth Amendment rights \tagainst self-incrimination before the Senate Judiciary Committee rather than \ttestify. You must know that her testimony would be important to the \tJudiciary Committee, since you offered her as a Department witness and \tagreed in your meeting with Judiciary Committee Senators on March 8 that the \tDepartment would cooperate with the Committee in providing her testimony \talong with that of others.<\/p>\n In the ordinary course, \tthe Committee would discuss this with your Department to determine the best \tcourse of action with respect to a witness who has asserted Fifth Amendment \trights against self-incrimination, so as not to unwittingly hinder a \tprosecution by the Department. While it is premature to presume that any \tcriminal prosecution will result from this inquiry now, it is also premature \tto presume one will not. It therefore seems advisable to have discussions \tbetween the Committee and the Department regarding how to proceed with \tregard to Ms. Goodling. Our question to you is: Who do we talk to at the \tDepartment of Justice? The office of the Attorney General appears to be \thopelessly conflicted.<\/p>\n We would appreciate \thearing from you whether a special counsel is necessary for us to speak \twith, or how you suggest creating appropriate firewalls so that a \tnon-conflicted person with appropriate knowledge and authority can have the \tcustomary discussions with the Committee regarding Ms. Goodling’s \ttestimony.<\/p>\n On a related matter, we \tunderstand that you initially ordered an investigation by the Department’s \tOffice of Professional Responsibility and that a joint Office of Inspector \tGeneral and Office of Professional Responsibility investigation is now under \tway. Is Ms. Goodling cooperating with that investigation? It is our \tunderstanding that career Department employees are \trequired to cooperate with OIG and OPR investigations.<\/p>\n We are told by the \tDepartment that despite Ms. Goodling’s unwillingness to testify, she \tnonetheless remains on your payroll. Has it ever happened in the history of \tthe Department of Justice that \tan attorney has refused to cooperate with OIG or OPR or asserted Fifth \tAmendment rights against self-incrimination and remained an employee of the \tDepartment? Please provide information regarding any precedent for these \textraordinary circumstances.<\/p>\n We would appreciate \thearing from you promptly on these matters.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n This<\/strong><\/a> isn’t at all funny to me. The situation that Monica Goodling<\/strong>, Senior Counsel to the Attorney General<\/em> and White House Liason for the Department of Justice<\/em>, creates with her refusal to testify [see her lawyer’s letter<\/strong><\/a>] is so ludicrous that one is tempted to make jokes about it. She remains employed by the government and is "on leave." The Administration is so into their take-over of government that they feel no obligation to even participate in our Constitutional Democracy.<\/p>\n Among the myriad of scandals swirling around the Bush Administration, the active subversion of the Department of Justice for political gain trumps all the rest. We can get over a bad war, we can unelect bad officials, but it the judicial system become an arm of a political Party, there is no Democracy. There is more than enough evidence that the Justice Department itself mounted a campaign to influence elections. Now high ranking officials are developing epidemic amnesia and refusing to testify.<\/p>\n So, to me, this letter is more than a Democratic political ploy. It goes to the heart of the matter at hand. How can we investigate the very Agency that regulates investigations, particularly when a central figure in the investigation, an ongoing employee, refuses to testify. If you read her lawyer’s letter<\/strong><\/a>, it says that the Congressional Investigation might lead to a criminal investigation, so Ms. Goodling doesn’t want to talk to Congress, and<\/u> she wants to keep her job, and<\/u>, by the way, nobody did anything wrong.<\/p>\n Not funny at all. Tragic… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Honorable Alberto Gonzales Attorney General of the United States U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530 Dear Attorney General Gonzales: As you are aware, Monica Goodling has indicated that she will assert her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination before the Senate Judiciary Committee rather than testify. You must know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\tAttorney General of the United States
\tU.S. Department of Justice
\t950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
\tWashington, DC 20530<\/p>\n\n PATRICK LEAHY<\/strong>
Chairman<\/td>\n SHELDON WHITEHOUSE<\/strong>
United States Senator<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n