Alberto Gonzales Lied To Congress - Goodling

May 24, 2007

Washington, D.C. - Monica Goodling, a former senior aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, leveled some serious new charges against him saying that Gonzales tried to review his version of the prosecutor firings with her at a time when lawmakers were homing in on his conflicting accounts. Gonzales testified under oath to Congress that he hadn't spoken with any witnesses.

"Do you think, Ms. Goodling, the attorney general was trying to shape your recollection?" Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala. asked.

Goodling said: "I just did not know if it was a conversation we should be having and so I just didn't say anything."

"It made me a little uncomfortable," Goodling said of her conversation with Gonzales. "I just did not know if it was appropriate for us to both be discussing our recollections of what had happened."

Goodling's testimony is the third that conflicts with Gonzales' sworn testimony.

Goodling also alleged that Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, who testified last week, lied to Congress and was "not fully candid."

In a daylong hearing before Congress, Goodling minimized her role in the controversial firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year, and joined a long line of Justice officials who say they were not responsible for adding names to the lists of those to be dismissed.

Investigators are looking into links between the prosecutor firings and the Bush administration's blocking prosecutions of Republican crime.

Goodling's appearance shows deepening rifts between current and former Justice officials, who have increasingly turned on one another since the prosecutor firings.

Chuck Hagel said Tuesday that Alberto Gonzales is expected to resign after this latest testimony.

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