John Conyers and Linda Sanchez Write a Dear Monica Letter

Jesse Lee at The Gavel reports: Today, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sánchez (D-CA) sent a letter to the Attorney General’s Special Counsel and White House Liaison Monica Goodling, through her attorney John M. Dowd, requesting her cooperation in closed-door interviews in connection with the ongoing US Attorney scandal. Dowd sent a letter last week to House and Senate leaders advising them that Goodling would invoke her Fifth Amendment privilege in response to such invitations; however, the two lawmakers argue that previous Supreme Court rulings require individuals to respond on a question-by-question basis and a closed-door interview could relieve the need for further, public questioning should she volunteer to participate. The letter says in part: We have reviewed Ms. Goodling’s declaration and the letters you sent to us and Senator Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and we are concerned that several of the asserted grounds for refusing to testify do not satisfy the well-established bases for a proper invocation of the Fifth Amendment against self- incrimination. In addition, of course, the Fifth Amendment privilege, under long-standing Supreme Court precedents, does not provide a reason to fail to appear to testify; the privilege must be invoked by the witness on a question-by-question basis.