Monica Goodling, counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and White House liaison for the Justice Department, has decided to invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuses to testify before Congress about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

Her decision, based on the advice of her attorneys, has raised some additional questions. The main question being is this a valid use of the Fifth Amendment? A question that can only be answered by experts in constitutional law.

What is she trying to hide? Who is she trying to protect? The more the Justice Department officials squirm around in the mess they have made, the deeper they sink.

Like my old granddaddy used to say, "Nothing fits like the truth."

Top Gonzales aide will take the fifth in testimony before Congress

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' liaison with the White House will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, citing her Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer said Monday.

"I have decided to follow my lawyer's advice and respectfully invoke my constitutional right," Monica Goodling, Gonzales' counsel and White House liaison, said in a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The revelation complicated the outlook for Gonzales, who is traveling out of town this week even as he fights to keep his job and his agency's investigatory power.

 

From Talking Points Memo

Certainly there's no 5th amendment privilege against testifying before meanies. So the alleged partisanship of the committee doesn't fly. And in any case, the committee doesn't prosecute you for perjury. Unless I'm completely forgetting how this works, all they can do is make a referral to the Justice Department. (Maybe they can hand it to Gonzales next time he comes to testify.) And the most sensible defense against a perjury trap, I would have thought, would be to tell the truth. After all, to the best of my knowledge Goodling hasn't testified on this subject before -- so it's not like they can trap her into contradicting previous sworn testimony.

From The New York Times Editorial Page:

Time for Answers

The news that Monica Goodling, counsel to the attorney general and liaison to the White House, is invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination takes the United States attorney scandal to a new level. Ms. Goodling’s decision comes just days after the Justice Department released documents strongly suggesting that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has not been honest about his own role in the firing of eight federal prosecutors. Mr. Gonzales is scheduled to testify before the Senate in three weeks, but that is too long to wait. He should speak now, and explain why he continues to insist that his department did nothing wrong.

As the liaison between the White House and the Justice Department, Ms. Goodling seems to have been squarely in the middle of what appears to have been improper directions from the White House to politicize the hiring and firing of United States attorneys. Mr. Gonzales has insisted the eight prosecutors were let go for poor performance, and that the dismissals are an “overblown personnel matter.” But Ms. Goodling’s decision to exercise her Fifth Amendment rights suggests that she, at least, believes crimes may have been committed.