Monica Goodling, counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, has resigned, CNN reports.
UPDATE: Goodling’s letter to Gonzales, via ABC News, does not explain the reasons for her resignation:
I am hereby submitting my resignation to the Office of the Attorney General, effective April 7, 2007. It has been an honor to have served at the Department of Justice for the past five years. May God bless you richly as you continue your service to America.
UPDATE II: NBC’s Pete Williams: “It doesn’t really put her on any other [legal] footing, in terms of testimony. I mean, it makes it pretty clear that she won’t be represented in any way by the government, but she has retained private counsel, who have been quite muscular in their dealings with Congress, saying she’s simply not going to show up.”
UPDATE III: CNN’s report:
[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/04/goodling193737.320.240.flv]
UPDATE IV: Sen. Schumer (D-NY) on Goodling’s resignation: “Attorney General Gonzales’ hold on the department gets more tenuous each day.”
UPDATE V: A spokesperson for the House Judiciary Committee told Raw Story that Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) “remains committed to questioning Monica Goodling, especially with this new development. Her involvement and general knowledge of what happened makes her a valuable piece to this puzzle.”
UPDATE VI: Goodling’s mother, Cindy Fitt of Osceola Mills, Pa., on her daughter’s resignation: “She told me I’m to say ‘no comment’ for everything.”