DOJ to Release Long-Awaited Report on US Attorney Firings Monday

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But Goodling disputed McNulty’s assertions, saying he was well aware the White House was involved in the decision to fire the U.S. Attorneys.

"I believe the deputy was not fully candid," Goodling said in testimony before Congress in May 2007. "The allegation is false, … I didn't withhold information from the deputy."

Goodling also told lawmakers she believed Gonzales tried to coach her before she testified by reviewing his recollection of the events that transpired around the time of the attorney firings.

Gonzales “proceeded to say, 'Let me tell you what I can remember,' and he laid out for me his general recollection ... of some of the process" of the firings, Goodling said.

When Gonzales finished, "he asked me if I had any reaction to his iteration," she added.

Goodling said the conversation made her feel uncomfortable because she knew she and Gonzales would be compelled to testify about the matter.

In April 2007, Gonzales had testified that he could not recall certain details related to the firings and that he was steering clear of witnesses such as Goodling so as not to influence their testimony.

"I haven't talked to witnesses because of the fact that I haven't wanted to interfere with this investigation and department investigations," Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sampson also disputed a Gonzales statement at a March 13, 2007, news conference in which the Attorney General attempted to explain the firings by saying his chief of staff [Sampson] failed to brief him or his deputy, McNulty.

"I was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on," Gonzales said.

However, Sampson testified that Gonzales’s statement was “not accurate.”

Documents released by the Justice Department last year showed that Gonzales and McNulty participated in an hour-long meeting with Sampson and three other officials on Nov. 27, 2006 — about two weeks before the U.S. Attorneys were fired — to review the plan to fire them.

Investigative Doubts

Iglesias said he did not have confidence at first that the joint investigation by the Justice Department IG and Office of Professional Responsibility was going to be conducted thoroughly.

“I had to get talked into doing it,” said Iglesias, who published a book on the firings, In-Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked The Bush Administration. “I felt nothing was going to happen. But I was told that the people who work in those offices are career people. They are not politicos.”

Iglesias said the next administration should form an internal Justice Department task force to make sure that the recommendations in Fine’s reports – rejecting politicization in hiring practices and legal decisions – are acted upon.

“They can’t ignore this,” Iglesias said. “This is not going away with a new President. The fact that the Justice Department is the agency that enforces individual rights and they were violating those rights is just a really awful situation. What do you do when the watchdog isn’t watching?”

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Jason Leopold is editor of the online investigative news magazine The Public Record, http://www.pubrecord.org, and the author of the National Bestseller, "News Junkie," a memoir. Visit www.newsjunkiebook.com for a preview. He is also a two-time (more...)

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