Did Monica Goodling and other Justice Dept. officials lie to Congress?

When Monica Goodling appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in May 2007, she testified that in her five years as the White House liaison to the Justice Department, she might have "crossed the line" occasionally by asking overt political questions of job applicants, but added, "I didn't mean to."

Today the Justice Department's inspector general released a new report concluding that political considerations -- namely how Republican their credentials were -- influenced the hiring of career prosecutors and immigration judges. And the report says that Goodling, who testified before Congress with immunity, was among the chief partisan cheerleaders. The report says:

"Goodling improperly subjected candidates for certain career positions to the same politically based evaluation she used on candidates for political positions."

The inspector general concluded that it was "improper, and violated the law and department policy, for Goodling to use political or ideological affiliations in selecting or rejecting detailees to these positions."

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sounded a note of vindication. After taking flak from Republican colleagues for what the GOP called an unrelenting fishing expedition, Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) said he's eyeing perjury charges. In a statement, he said:

"Today's report describes ‘systematic’ violations of federal law by several former leaders of the Department of Justice. Apparently, the political screening was so pervasive that even qualified Republican applicants were rejected from Department positions because they were ‘not Republican enough’ for Monica Goodling and others. The report also makes clear that the cost to our nation of these apparent crimes was severe, as qualified individuals were rejected for key positions in the fight against terrorism and other critical department jobs for no reason other than political whim."

As a result, Conyers said, he has asked the committee staff to look into perjury charges against Goodling, former Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales and Kyle Sampson, his chief of staff. Even though Goodling had immunity to testify, committee staffers say, she still had an obligation to tell the truth.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) chimed in too, saying, “Those of us who have watched the Bush Administration politicize the federal government aren't surprised by today's report. In the Bush White House, politics comes first, even if that means justice takes a back seat.”

But Lamar Smith, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, weighed in by arguing that partisan hiring, while regrettable, was not widespread.

“While the findings in the report are troubling, suggestions that these isolated instances of improper hiring decisions were endemic of a widespread problem are false and undermine the good work of the many civil servants and political appointees at the Justice Department.  Although the report does show wrongdoing by a few, it also shows that several political appointees expressed concerns over Monica Goodling’s hiring decisions.  Additionally, at this point there has been no evidence that improper partisan political influence affected the substance of the Department’s work.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo credit: Pete Souza / Chicago Tribune

Comments

[JoePublic]

She should be held for contempt of Congress and prosecuted for acts of Treason. To deliberately destroy the balance of our country's branches of government is without a doubt treason. Just as regular people would be told, ignorance is not accuse for breaking the law. It appears to me that the only way to start the healing from the ignorance and corruption of the Bush Administration is to eliminate everyone who was appointed by him. It's just too bad that the Supreme Court and thus our country can not be rebalanced for decades to come. Thanks for ruining my country George! Do us all a favor and disappear forever when your done with your term. I hear from most people that a nice house by the lake of fire would best suit your stature.

[Cryos]

Oh please more democratic partisan posturing. Of course each administration hires with politics in consideration; if you believe this was unique to the Bush administration you are a tool.

On a similar subject I'm sure Clinton had a valid reason for firing all but 2 attorney generals right? I'm sure that wasn't based on getting friendly people into those positions. Yet the democrats spend countless hours grilling the Bush administration because of 7 fired attorney generals.

If democrats were spending time on things they promised in 2006 like lowering gas prices rather than posturing for elections maybe this country would be better off.

[Fareed H. Ansari]

The Office of the Senior Law Enforcement Agency deliberatly broke the Law to hire more Law Breakers is an affront to the Law Enforcement Creed to Exornarate the Innocent and Punish the Guilty. This could concievably trigger Reversals of every Conviction obtained during Gonzales time as AG. What a mess; with everything elese going on who needs this?

[wmoccam]

7/28/2008
In her testimony before Congress Monica Goodling admitted to willful violations of federal law and, to the extent her testimony was truthful, has been given immunity and cannot be prosecuted for those offences.

On the other hand, if Goodling is an attorney anywhere she has also admitted to acts of moral turpitude sufficient to warrant disbarment. Does she have immunity for that?

And now it also appears her testimony may not have been truthful.... oh, my.

All this makes you wonder just what kind of legal ethics classes are being taught at the "Christian" law school (founded by Pat Robertson) which Goodling attended and reputedly graduated 'cum laude'.

[iH8uAll]

This was -worse- than "posturing" JoePublic, this was discrimination to the HILT. "[She] didn't mean to" my ss.

Democrats are NOT the reason gas prices are so high either JoePubic. Your REPUBLICAN WAR CRIMINAL is the reason.

[iH8uAll]

I should have directed my commets to "Cryos" not JoePubilc. appologies.

[Phil MacKraken]

What a bunch of Fascists. You Americans are so funny, you claim you are the "land of the free and home of the brave." It's more like "land of the payed off and home of the lobbyists." A great country if you are white and rich.

[Westexacan]

Typical Repubicans, . Liars, cheats, crooks.
One more big mess of the Bush its.

[Lewis]

Sounds a lot like the people they appointed to run the "reconstruction" effort after the Iraq invasion - first qualifications were to be a Republican flack, and experienced people who were of dubious political loyalties were cut from the lists. And we all know how well that worked out for the good of the nation.

[servo]

What does one expect when a lawyer from a fourth tier law school - Regent - is herself appointed purely for her political views rather than intellectual capacity?

What a proud day for Messiah College in PA and Regent Law School!

Apparently Regent and evangelical christian schools do not bother to instill ethical behavior in their graduates.

Is it any surprise given that John Ashcroft is considered a distinguished professor there?

This is why thinking Americans are turning away from christian extremism as practiced by the evangelicals. We can see it for what it is.

Further: "Why do you want to serve George Bush?"

I thought the Justice Department served the American people.

Silly me.

[terry]

They finally did succeed in turning the justice dept into a right wing bigot justice department. All those hired by the neo-republinazi party, still work for the justice dept, except Gonzales. He was replaced by another neo-gestapo brown shirt who says that water boarding is not torture. Of course he has never been water boarded, if he had he might have a different opinion. How much do you want to bet no one goes to jail for this or gets fired. Remember the new national motto. No one in government is held responsible for anything they do. If they are, other corrupt politicians will give them immunity or a pardon. Remember to vote for the brown shirt party or the party with no balls.

[Cryos]

"They finally did succeed in turning the justice dept into a right wing bigot justice department."

So you can justify actions from the previous Clinton adminstration like firing all but 2 attorney generals as non-partisan right?

"Democrats are NOT the reason gas prices are so high either JoePubic. Your REPUBLICAN WAR CRIMINAL is the reason. "

Well lets see I remember in 2006 when gas was $2.36 democrats promised if you elected them they would lower gas prices. In 2006 and 2007 they attempted to pass 0 legislation but instead felt it important to grill Roger Clemens with their available time. They didn't even seem to try to address the causes until an election year.

I hope most people reading this have the common sense to know that it is good for the party not in the presidency to have a bad economy in an election year. Please do yourself some good and gain some credibility by thinking a bit outside the "I hate Bush" box and thinking for yourself. For some I know this is a lot to ask since the obvious, desired answers have been placed in front of your face from the media and they don't want you analyzing things.

[Blondetto]

Monica Goolding:

born 1973;

graduated from high school 1991;

B.A. in "Speech Communications" from Messiah College, 1995;

At this time, Goodling lists her work experience as including being a country club lifeguard, and working the Guest Services desk at a Holiday Inn; (a law school resume shows these two positions as the only paid occupations she ever held);

enrolled American University law school 1996;

transferred to Pat Robertson's evangelical Regent University Law School (whose motto is "Christian Leadership To Change The World");

Regent University is a 4th-tier school -- the lowest ranking in terms of quality education, research output, impact, academic reputation, retention rate, student selectivity, quality of faculty, graduate performance;

while at Regent U., Goodling maintained a personal web page where she identified CNN and USA Today as "news from the left" (that's right; USA Today is a left-wing news organization)

at the time Goodling was enrolled at Regent U., the school was not even an accredited law school; the year Goodling graduate (1999) was the first year Regent U. became accredited;

the year Goodling graduated from Regent U., roughly 60% of all its graduating lawschool students failed the bar exam -- reputedly among the worst failure rates ever recorded;

upon graduating from Regent U., Goodling found work in the Republican Nat. Committee during the campaign to elect Bush in 2000;

after Bush was sworn in as president in 2001, Goodling was offered a job in the DOJ press office;

thereafter, she was assigned to the DOJ executive office and became Deputy Director of the Executive Office;

Less than one year later, she was assigned to the Attorney General's office where she served as a the 3rd highest Justice Department official in the country, directly beneath John Ashcroft (later Alberto Gonzales);

Prior to this time, she had never worked as a lawyer, much less as a prosecutor, either at the state or federal level; it does not appear that she ever clerked or interned in any capacity as a lawyer while in law school or thereafter;

Upon being assigned to the AG office, Goodling was responsible for the job performance of 92 U.S. attorney generals, over whom she had delegated hiring and firing authority;

In 2007 Goolding took an indefinite leave of absence because she was implicated in the U.S. attorney-firing scandal;

She was granted immunity in exchange for testifying before Congress, which she did in May 2007;

Goodling testified that she "crossed the line" (i.e., broke the law), broke civil service rules regarding hiring and firing, and improperly weighed political factors in considering applicants for DOJ appointments.

She was 32 years old at the time.

At the time of her testimony, the Bush Administration had hired/appointed no fewer than 150 Regent U. graduates.

This hiring spree was spear-headed by Office of Personnel Management (OPM) director, Kay Cole James.

Prior to becoming Bush's director of the OPM, Kay Cole James was (surprise!) the Dean of Regent U. government school.

She was also VP of the Family Research Counsel, a right-wing evangelical fund-raising and lobbying organization.

After leaving the OPM, James took a position as VP of "National Security Transformation" for MZM, Inc. -- one of several companies implicated in the Rep. Randy Cunningham (and others) scandal; she resigned when the scandal broke;

After resigning as Bush's AG, John Ashcroft was hired as Regent U. law school "Distinguished Prof. of Law & Gov't".

And on and on and on and on and on. . . .

[Cryos]

"All those hired by the neo-republinazi party, still work for the justice dept, except Gonzales. He was replaced by another neo-gestapo brown shirt who says that water boarding is not torture. "

I hate to bring up facts to question ideals, but you do know the Nazis were the Socialist Nazi party right?

[terry]

to Cryos The correct name for the nazi party was the national socialist peoples workers party. History will bear me out that they where right wing nationalist. ie fascist. Just because socialist is in the name does not make them friends of the people. The nazi party broke unions, forced people to work on goverment projects and put anyone who disagreed with them in concentration camps. I guess that was the social part of their name you where mentioning. Democrats by their complacency are just as guilty. Remember they are the ones that gave the immmunity to Godling. Plea-bargining and immunity are the exact opposite of justice. Remember the USA motto is-no one is responsible or accountable.

[anticryos]

The logic of Goodling and other Bush/Regent U types is that God is greater than the state, and He authorizes righteous hiring policies and so forth. God wants committed Christians to run the US government. The laws of men don't mean anything. Babies are dying, and if you have to destroy the government in order to stop abortion, then you take your chances with US law. Of course, now that these people are in trouble with the law, you'll see their Christian conviction melt away fast! But they'll go away believing that they were the victims.

[Stacy]

anticryos you got it right. We have our own religious terrorists in the US, people who will tell you one minute they obey the law, the next will do whatever their voices (or their "God") tells them to do. They are neo-conservatives for the most part, hiding behind the skirts of religion and breaking every law they can... fervently believing they are above the law and thus immune to lawful behavior. Mormons routinely have Mormon police use federal databases to investigate "pesky" members. They wiretap anyone who they view as a "significant" threat and have a security system that's even more intense than the FBIs! Their kissing cousins the FLDS routinely defraud the US but see no problem with doing so, since "God" told them to break the laws. Why am I mentioning Mormons and their own atrocities? Because Kyle Sampson went to the Mormon BYU like good Mormons are supposed to according to
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700246718,00.html ... Bush invaded a county on lies and has now saddled the US with the hugest debt ever! Bush and Cheney need to be brought up on treason charges for not only doing their d*mndest to destroy the US financially, but for Cheney's Haliburton stealing millions more from US. This good ole boys mentality is hurting US, but not as badly as they hope. We can do a good old fashioned "Spring cleaning" in Washington DC and beyond. We can clean up politics, we can make this country much better because We Are The People and We have the Power. Sure, the media tries to make us all think the "bad guys" have taken over by broadcasting their crimes throughout the world. Never forget how many millions of people are still living good lives and working to make this country great again.

PS: want to help rebuild the US? Buy everything you buy wisely and ,as much as possible, buy American.

[Bill Suthers]

Yes, not just corruption, but another Monica problem. "God is greater than the state" indeed...

Listen to what these guys have to say:

http://smashgods.com/2008/08/04/doj-report-not-just-corruption-but-another-monica-problem/