A House panel is considering granting limited immunity from prosecution to force testimony by a former aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
The House Judiciary Committee will meet today to discuss a proposal to grant immunity to Monica Goodling, who resigned as a senior counselor to Gonzales after invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Goodling, 33, was the attorney general’s liaison to the White House and helped coordinate the effort to replace the eight U.S. attorneys, according to documents turned over to Congress.
House and Senate committees are investigating whether prosecutors were fired for improper reasons, such as to spur or thwart criminal probes.
“Ms. Goodling clearly has much to contribute to the committee’s understanding of the surrounding circumstances,” Rep. John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the panel, said in a statement.
Her testimony would “begin to clear up the many inconsistencies and gaps” in the story of the dismissals, he said.
A two-thirds vote of the panel, which Democrats control by a 22-17 margin, is required to seek a grant of limited immunity from prosecution. Such a grant of limited or “use” immunity would bar prosecutors from using any statements that Goodling makes to Congress as evidence to bring a prosecution against her arising from the firings.
