1115.org

Here’s a little something that’s largely slipped through the cracks.

Monica Goodling has some Justice Department documents that the House and Senate Judiciary Committees would dearly love to get their hands on. And she won’t hand them over without the Justice Department’s permission:

In a letter to House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers, Goodling’s attorney, John Dowd, says that his client has “copies of … electronic documents and emails” that would be responsive to those requests, “including un-redacted copies of documents produced to date only in redacted form” by the Justice Department. However, Dowd says that Goodling can’t give the documents to the committee because Justice Department guidelines prohibit former employees from producing department documents “without prior approval of the proper department official.” Dowd says he notified the Justice Department of the Judiciary Committee’s document subpoena over the weekend but hasn’t heard anything in response yet.

Conyers is not amused. In a letter replying to Dowd today, Conyers cites a number of reasons why the Justice Department regulations in question don’t apply in this case, then reminds Dowd and his client that the Justice Department has “repeatedly stated that it intends to cooperate fully” with the congressional investigation into the firing of the U.S. attorneys. Conyers writes — and we’ll assume that he’s engaged in a bit of sarcasm here — that he “cannot imagine” that the department “would at this point object” to Goodling’s production of “relevant documents” in her possession.

Really nice to see Goodling so concerned about Justice Department guidelines regarding the production of Justice Department documents.

I wonder if the Justice Department also has guidelines regarding ex-employees taking sensitive Justice Department documents home, and hanging onto them after they are no longer in the employ of the Justice Department?