Monica Goodling, An Immune Felon

Ex-Justice Official Monica Goodling pled the fifth last month to avoid possibly incriminating herself over the U.S. Attorney scandal. Well her testimony today showed that she did indeed commit crimes by helping to get rid of several U.S. Attorneys due to political reasons. Rep. Bobby Smith (D-VA) nailed her on the point, even though she tried to weasel out of admitting she broke the law.

From the AP:

Goodling, 33, quit the department last month and initially pleaded the Fifth Amendment on Wednesday. After being granted court-approved immunity, she admitted that in some instances she may have weighed the political views and affilations of job applicants for jobs as career prosecutors _ a violation of federal law.

"I may have gone too far, and I may have taken inappropriate political considerations into account on some occasions," Goodling said. "And I regret those mistakes."

Justice Department documents show Goodling attended numerous meetings over a year's time about the plans to fire the U.S. attorneys and corresponded with the White House and at least one of the ousted prosecutors before the dismissals were ordered.

Goodling also testified that Deputy Attorney General McNulty was not fully candid in his testimony and that it was pretty much all his fault. Placing blame on others while squeaking through on an immunity deal seems to be turning out perfectly for her and the White House. McNulty has clearly become the fall guy for the Administration so that Gonzales can remain in his post.

Though Goodling forgets that there are tons of emails and documents showing she met with the White House over who to fire. Getting a hold of those documents have been tough, but the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fall into place and it paints a much larger picture than just a spotlight on Paul McNulty. In the end, the portrait will show all of them in the sun, hopefully shown being led into their jail cells, where they belong (Monica excluded of course).