March 26 (Bloomberg) -- An aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will invoke her constitutional right to refuse to testify before a Senate panel investigating the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, her lawyer told the committee.

Monica Goodling, who helped coordinate the dismissals as the attorney general's White House liaison, will invoke her Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. She will refuse to be interviewed by committee lawyers and decline an invitation to testify at a public hearing, said attorney John M. Dowd, citing the ``legally perilous'' environment of congressional probes.

Goodling, 33, now on annual leave, is one of four agency officials the Justice Department said could be interviewed by the panel. The Senate Judiciary Committee and its House counterpart are probing whether the firings were carried out for improper political purposes, such as interfering with criminal investigations.

``The hostile and questionable environment in the present congressional proceedings is at best ambiguous; more accurately the environment can be described as legally perilous for Ms. Goodling,'' Dowd said in a letter to Senator Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the panel. ``The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling even from her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real.''

`The Whole Truth'

Dowd cited statements by Leahy and New York Democrat Charles E. Schumer accusing the Justice Department of misleading Congress. In a March 15 statement, Leahy said that Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty ``failed to tell Congress the whole truth about this matter under oath.''

``The American people are left to wonder what conduct is at the base of Ms. Goodling's concern that she may incriminate herself in connection with criminal charges if she appears before the committee under oath,'' Leahy said in a statement.

Dowd, a veteran white-collar criminal lawyer, cited the recent perjury conviction of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis Libby, as well as criminal prosecutions of former government officials stemming from their testimony to Congress.

``It is unfortunate that a public servant no longer feels comfortable that they will be treated fairly in testimony in front of Congress,'' Dana Perino, a spokeswoman for President George W. Bush, said in an e-mailed statement.

Perino said the president, who has urged Justice Department officials to cooperate with Congress, nevertheless respects ``the constitutional rights of the people involved and the decision of those individuals and their counsel to protect those rights.''

Risky for Witness

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, said Dowd appears to be advising his client to avoid getting ``in the middle of a swearing match'' in which ``there are going to be different stories told and it's risky'' for a witness under oath.

Congressional hearings are ``treacherous territory'' and ``there is not much upside'' to testifying, so ``why do it?'' Tobias said.

In response to Leahy's statement, Dowd said the chairman ``ignores the very basis on which Goodling has asserted her constitutional right.'' Dowd said, ``The Fifth Amendment protects innocent persons who might otherwise be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances as much as it protects those who may have done something wrong.''

Goodling has served as a Justice Department spokeswoman and as an aide to Gonzales, where she functioned as a liaison with the White House.

Gonzales's former chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, is scheduled to testify March 29 before the panel. Sampson resigned March 12, a day before Gonzales said he had delegated the job of selecting the U.S. attorneys to his chief of staff.

Inaccurate Information

The attorney general has previously blamed Sampson for inaccurate information that top officials gave Congress about the firings, saying Sampson withheld information about the dismissal process from these officials.

Gonzales, in an interview with NBC News, said that while he was briefed on plans for the firings before they were carried out, he ``wasn't involved in the deliberations'' on whether any particular prosecutor would be asked to resign. The interview transcript was released today by the Justice Department.

``I've got nothing to hide in terms of what I've done,'' Gonzales told NBC.

Sampson, through his lawyer, Bradford Berenson, has challenged Gonzales's version of events, saying in a statement that information about the firings was available to others preparing the Feb. 6 Senate testimony of McNulty and of Will Moschella, his principal deputy, who appeared March 6 before a House panel.

`Game of Gotcha'

Today, Berenson said in an e-mailed statement that Sampson still plans to testify.

``Hearings in a highly politicized environment like this can sometimes become a game of gotcha, but Kyle has decided to trust Congress and the process,'' he said.

In his letter to Leahy, Dowd said he learned that ``a senior Department of Justice official,'' whom he didn't identify, had privately told Schumer that the official ``was not entirely candid in his report to the committee, and that the official allegedly claimed that others, including our client, did not inform him of certain pertinent facts.''

A spokesman for Schumer didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Dowd's letter. The senator issued a statement saying he was disappointed that Goodling won't testify.

`Not Told the Facts'

Asked about McNulty's testimony at a March 13 news conference, Schumer said, ``It may well be that he was not told the facts and was excluded from the facts.''

``I want to ask him and question him about what he knew,'' Schumer said.

Besides the inquiries by the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, two internal watchdog units of the Justice Department have started a joint investigation.

Also today, the House voted 329-78 to repeal a 2005 law that Democrats argue gave Gonzales too much power to appoint interim U.S. attorneys. Similar legislation passed the Senate last week and the Bush administration has dropped opposition to the measure. It would restore a 1986 law that gives courts the power to appoint U.S. attorneys 120 days after a vacancy occurs.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 26, 2007 19:16 EDT