Lawmaker warns Justice official Fifth Amendment won’t stop interview

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., on Tuesday warned Justice Department official Monica Goodling that she has to appear for questioning on her role in the fired federal prosecutors affair even though she intends to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

In a letter to her lawyer, John Dowd, Conyers cited "long-standing U.S. Supreme Court precedents" finding that witnesses who seek the protection of the Fifth Amendment might be required to invoke it on a question-by-question basis.

Goodling, who served as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' counsel and liaison to the White House before she took a leave of absence, informed the committee last month that she would not answer questions about the removal of eight U.S. attorneys late last year. She was one of six top Justice officials summoned for interviews by committee staffers investigating whether the firings were politically motivated.

In the letter, Conyers invited Goodling to appear voluntarily next week to be interviewed about the firings and her justification for invoking the Fifth Amendment. He said the questioning would be done in a "straightforward fashion" and "in a confidential setting." But he warned that her asserted grounds for taking the Fifth Amendment "do not satisfy the well established bases" for such a move.

Conyers said it ''would be poor public policy" for a witness to be excused from testifying because she feared an unwarranted perjury prosecution. He also informed Dowd that Goodling's testimony in the private interview could obviate the need for her to be subpoenaed to appear in public before the panel.

Also due to be interviewed are Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, Principal Associate Attorney General William Moschella, Acting Assistant Attorney General William Mercer, Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis, and Mike Battle, the former head of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys. Committee aides said the dates for the interviews had not yet been set. Gonzales is due to testify before the House panel later this month.