POSTED: 12:15 p.m. EDT, May 23, 2007
(CNN) -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former White House liaison testified Wednesday that she never discussed the hiring or firing of U.S. attorneys with White House officials.
"I did not hold the keys to the kingdom, as some have suggested," said Monica Goodling, who was senior counsel and White House liaison until resigning in April.
"To the best of my knowledge, I never had a conversation with Karl Rove or Harriet Miers while I served at the Department of Justice, and I'm certain I never spoke to either of them about the hiring or firing of any U.S. attorney," Goodling said in her opening statement to theHouse Judiciary Committee.
The committee is investigating whether the firings of eight U.S. attorneys was politically motivated and has questioned whether Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, and Miers, former White House counsel, were involved.
Goodling initially invoked her Fifth Amendment right to protection from self-incrimination, but the committee granted her immunity in return for her testimony.
The Judiciary Committee's chairman, Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, said Goodling "may well have information that will help us with our inquiry," in opening the hearingWednesday.
In a hearing last month, Conyers said that Goodling was "apparently involved in crucial discussions over a two-year period with senior White House aides, and with other senior Justice officials, in which the termination list was developed, refined and finalized."
Gonzales' Justice Department has said the attorneys were fired because of poor job performance, but critics allege the attorneys were fired for political reasons.
The investigation has led to calls for Gonzales' resignation.
Transcripts from a Judiciary Committee interview with a career Justice Department attorney released late Tuesday show Goodling sobbing uncontrollably and at great length in his office when the controversy began to swirl around her in March.
"She proceeded for the next, it seemed like forever, but it was probably only about 30 or 45 minutes, to bawl her eyes out and say, 'All I ever wanted to do was serve this president and this administration and this department,' " Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis said.
"My goal was to try to calm her, so I gave her some advice to calm her -- calm her down, which didn't work," Margolis said.
"I tried to make her laugh, which didn't work, and to give her some personal advice, which she didn't take."
Margolis said Goodling didn't say what role she had played in the U.S. attorney firings or offer any specifics during the March 8 meeting.
Deputy blamed Goodling for disputed testimony
Goodling, who resigned from her job last month, also has drawn scrutiny because she is one of the aides Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty blames for failing to brief him properly before his February appearance before Congress, according to her attorney and Conyers.
In that February 6 appearance, McNulty said all but one of the eight U.S. attorneys who were fired last year were fired for performance reasons. Prosecutors and their supporters disputed that statement, saying the firings were perhaps politically motivated.
Congressional investigators hope Goodling can shed light on some of the lingering questions surrounding the firings: What role did key White House officials play in determining which U.S. attorneys would be fired? Did they push for specific names to be added or removed? How was the list of the prosecutors developed? Were the firings at all prompted by a desire to interfere with investigations of members of Congress, as some Democrats have alleged?
Gonzales has denied any of the firings were done for improper reasons.
John Dowd, Goodling's attorney, said his client will testify truthfully and will answer the questions to the best of her ability.
E-mail: 'We have a senator prob'
Goodling was one of a handful of aides at a key November 27, 2006, meeting in which the firings were discussed. Numerous e-mails to and from her are among the internal Justice Department documents related to the controversy that have been released.
In many of them she discussed the resignation of U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins in Little Rock, Arkansas -- who was pushed out to make room for Tim Griffin, a former associate of Rove's -- and the criticism that ensued.
In an e-mail Goodling wrote August 18, 2006, to then-Justice Department Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson, she said, "We have a senator prob, so while wh is intent on nominating, scott [Scott Jennings, deputy White House political director] thinks we may have a confirmation issue."
Separately, e-mails showed she agreed to a request from Jennings to meet with some New Mexico Republican activists who were upset with the U.S. attorney there, David Iglesias, who later was added to the list of those to be fired.
Members of the committee are likely to press Goodling on why Iglesias was fired. His name was added late in the process and only after several members of Congress, including Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, complained about his job performance and his failure to bring a public corruption indictment before the 2006 election.
This month the Justice Department announced Goodling is the focus of an internal investigation looking into allegations she may have considered political affiliation during the hiring of career prosecutors, which is illegal.
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