DECLINING TO BE JACKED UP: Monica Goodling, an official with the U.S. Dept. of Justice, “will refuse to answer questions during a Senate committee hearing on the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, citing her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself, her lawyer said Monday.”
In a letter to Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Goodling’s lawyer writes: “The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real. One need look no further than the recent circumstances and proceedings involving Lewis Libby.”
Liberal Joshua Micah Marshall is skeptical of Goodling’s Fifth Amendment claim:
… the most sensible defense against a perjury trap, I would have thought, would be to tell the truth. After all, to the best of my knowledge Goodling hasn’t testified on this subject before — so it’s not like they can trap her into contradicting previous sworn testimony.
I don’t know whether Monica Goodling has a valid legal reason to assert a Fifth Amendment privilege here. (Law professor Eric Muller says she does.) But I do know that she has a legitimate reason to fear prosecution for lying to Congress even if she tells the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. As Goodling’s lawyer notes, Scooter Libby proved that you can be convicted of lying even if you don’t lie but your recollections differ from someone else’s.
So it might be, as Marshall suggests, that telling the truth is the “most sensible defense” against a charge of perjury. But that doesn’t mean it will be a successful defense.
ADDED —
D’oh! Just tell the truth! But if two or three others lie, or misremember, what then? Or if Ms. Goodling misremembers, is that a deliberate lie or an honest mistake? And who will decide — calm, objective observers or partisan Dems looking for scalps and opportunities for fund-raising appeals?
Eventually, the partisan Democrats on the Committee will have an opportunity to vote out a criminal referral to the DoJ, which can then try the case in front of a partisan DC jury. Is that really a sensible venue in which Ms. Goodling ought to try her luck?
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