WASHINGTON - Two senior Justice Department aides who orchestrated the firings of eight U.S. attorneys could hold the key to embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' credibility with Congress as a growing number of lawmakers call for his ouster.

One of the aides, former Gonzales chief of staff Kyle Sampson, is scheduled to testify Thursday in front of a Senate panel investigating whether the dismissals were politically motivated.

The other, Monica Goodling, has refused to testify and will take the Fifth Amendment to protect against incriminating herself while testifying under oath.

Both are fiercely loyal to Gonzales. And both could clarify how involved Gonzales was in planning the dismissals -- a sore point for lawmakers who say they feel deceived by conflicting Justice Department statements about the purge.

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Gonzales has largely blamed Sampson, who resigned March 12, for the botched way the firings were handled and incompletely described to Congress by top Justice officials under oath in two hearings. The attorney general says he had little direct involvement in the dismissals and relied on Sampson to help select the targeted prosecutors and plan for their departures.

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Goodling's attorney, John Dowd, said her refusal to testify was partly the result of a remarks by an unnamed senior Justice official who told an unnamed senator on the Judiciary Committee that "our client and others did not inform him of certain pertinent facts." Dowd called the congressional investigation a perjury trap.

Okay this last paragraph is about as clear as mud to me......anyone care to interpret?

by avahome on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 06:17:50 AM EST