Can Goodling invoke the Fifth Amendment?
To answer my own question, no, I do not believe so, at least not for the reasons given by her attorney. If Goodling is guilty of no crime, she has nothing to fear from her testimony. Certainly she cannot claim the privilege in order to prevent lying to Congress, thus perjuring herself and/or obstructing Justice. In like manner, if no crime was committed in the firing of the US attorneys, as the Justice Department and the White House have repeatedly claimed, than any matter to which she testifies truthfully would not incriminate her. The fact that the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee may be hostile, or that one of her superiors claimed she failed to provide him with all the necessary facts about the firings before he testified before Congress, are not sufficient grounds, in and of themselves to refuse to testify before Congress. That is, they aren’t sufficient unless she has reason to believe that a crime or crimes have indeed been committed by her superiors, crimes in which
