How much will we learn tomorrow when Monica Goodling, the Justice Department’s former White House liaison, testifies in front of the House Judiciary Committee under a grant of immunity from prosecution? A spokeswoman for the Committee says it has been given “every indication” that she will be forthcoming.
We have a few indications of the kinds of questions she will face. In private testimony that is being released this afternoon by the commitee, Alberto Gonzales’s former Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson told investigators that Gonzales himself initially resisted the idea of bypassing the Senators from Arkansas to install Karl Rove protege Tim Griffin as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Pressure to do it, he suggested, was coming from officials at the White House–specifically, White House political director Sara Taylor, her deputy Scott Jennings and Chris Oprison, the associate White House counsel. Sampson described himself and Goodling as “open to the idea,” which is not the same as instigating it.
Goodling also seems certain to be asked about the dramatic scene, reported at TIME.com and elsewhere, in which she broke into tears in the office of Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis shortly before she resigned. Margolis told investigators that Goodling believed “everything was unraveling. And, you know, she was right about that.” The question now is how much Goodling will be willing to help investigators piece it back together.
Here are the Judiciary Committee’s transcript excerpts.
UPDATE: Commenter ZSM writes:
I heard that she’s withholding documents as well. I heard it as a rumor, but if that’s true, I don’t expect much, though I will be listening to it on C-SPAN.
The committee confirms that Goodling does indeed have documents that it would like to see. It has only redacted versions of those documents. However, it tells me that its dispute here is with the Justice Department, and that it is pressing the department to give Goodling permission to turn them over. Here is a fuller explanation from The Hill.