Ex-Gonzales deputy 'heard rumors' of political hiring and firing in Justice Department
 The former top deputy to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the House Judiciary Committee today that he had "heard rumors" that Justice Department White House Liaison Monica Goodling was using political criteria in making personnel decisions among non-political, career staff.
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) asked James B. Comey, former Deputy Attorney General, if he had knowledge of Goodling, who recently resigned from the Justice Department and is the subject of an internal investigation, using political criteria in making hiring and firing decisions for career staff.
"I had heard rumors to that effect, and read in the newspaper most recently about an investigation on that subject, after I left the government in the last six months or so," Comey told Conyers after being subpoenaed to testify before the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.
Comey served as Deputy Attorney General from October 2003 to August 2005, beginning during the tenure of Attorney General John Ashcroft and continuing after Gonzales' move to the Justice Department from the White House. When Ashcroft was obliged to recuse himself from the investigation into the leak of the identity of covert CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson, Comey appointed US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald to serve as Special Counsel in the case. Comey currently serves as General Counsel to Lockheed Martin.
Monica Goodling resigned last month from her position in the Justice Department after invoking her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refusing to testify before of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. The House Judiciary Committee recently offered her partial immunity from prosecution in order to gain her testimony.
Also during the hearing, Comey testified that he was not aware of problems with the US Attorneys who were fired.
"My experience with those Attorneys was very positive. The names that I have read in the newspaper have not been consistent with my experience," he told the subcommittee's chair, Rep. Linda Sánchez.
Comey explained that he had a primary oversight role on the US Attorneys during his tenure and had been contacted by D. Kyle Sampson, Gonzales former chief of staff who resigned over the manner of the firings, to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of various US Attorneys.
"We had a February 28, 2005, 15 minute meeting, with him asking me, as best I can recall, who did I think were the weakest," he said.
However, other than Kevin Ryan, the former US Attorney for the Northern District of California, he said that none of the fired US Attorneys had come to mind as "weak or ineffective."
Comey also noted that he had similar conversations with Attorney General John Ashcroft's Chief of Staff in the previous year, and did not recall Sampson bringing up the White House in the Feb. 2005 meeting.
At the same time, Comey said he had no awareness that there was a process initiated to fire the US Attorneys.
"I was not aware that there was any kind of process going on, or that my very brief conversation with Mr. Sampson was part of a process to fire US Attorneys," he said.
The Committee's Republicans offered little in the way of inquiry, sticking to a handful of questions on whether or not Comey was aware of any improper reasons for the firings of the US Attorneys.
"So far, this seems to be a fishing expedition that has come up dry," said Rep. Chris Cannon (UT), the ranking Republican on the Subcommittee, in an opening statement. "There's been nothing, at least that I can see up there, that warrants the continued reference to stonewalling, corruption, and other, I think extreme statements by the majority."
Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) took exception to Cannon's remark.
"We have an obligation to get to the bottom of this and reassure the public if there has been no wrongdoing," he said.
Rep. Sánchez also criticized Rep. Cannon's later suggestion that the subcommittee's Democrats were "grasping at straws."
"Nobody at the DOJ seems to know who created the list, or who put the names on the list," she pointed out.
Additional details can be read at Fire Dog Lake which live-blogged the hearing.
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