Washington ? A former top Justice Department aide on Wednesday testified that U.S. Attorney Todd Graves of Kansas City, Mo., may have been forced from office because he was “under investigation,” not because he clashed with senior officials over policy.

Monica Goodling, who resigned last month as the Justice Department’s White House liaison, did not specify what Graves was being investigated for in her testimony to the House Judiciary Committee.

“My memory of the reason why I was thinking that Mr. Graves had been asked to leave related more to the fact that he was under investigation by the inspector general,” Goodling said.

Graves, in a telephone interview, called Goodling’s testimony “outrageous,” though he disclosed for the first time that the department’s inspector general was, in fact, investigating the circumstances surrounding an employee who had been terminated from Graves’ office in 2005.

The disclosures offered a new twist in the probe of how Graves came to be one of at least nine U.S. Attorneys targeted for replacement in 2006. Lawmakers are investigating whether partisan political reasons were behind the drive to remove top prosecutors around the country.

It was the first time Goodling has spoken publicly about the scandal that has prompted lawmakers from both parties to call for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign. She testified under a grant of limited immunity from criminal prosecution for her conduct.

Graves, who resigned from his post in March 2006, has said he disagreed with senior Justice Department officials over his refusal to sign off on a voter fraud case in Missouri.

But Goodling told lawmakers she does not believe any disputes over the voter fraud case played any part in Graves being forced out.

Goodling also told lawmakers that the move to replace Graves should not be lumped into the investigation of eight other chief prosecutors forced from office.

While Graves said he cannot be sure what investigation Goodling is referring to, he dismissed any suggestion the employment inquiry was the reason he was asked to resign.

“As part of that termination process, a vague allegation was made against me that I had inappropriately attended a political fundraiser,” Graves said. “The allegation was frivolous, false and vague, but we recognized that it might become a ‘whistleblower’ issue in what we considered was imminent litigation over the termination.”

Graves said he and his criminal chief, Matt Whitworth, decided to report the matter to the department’s inspector general in 2005 so it could be reviewed.

“That Ms. Goodling would adamantly disclaim any knowledge of how I or anyone else got on a DOJ staff secret hit list, and then casually throw out a vague memory of a routine OIG investigation that I initiated out of prudence, is beyond the pale,” Graves said.

Goodling’s vague reference to the investigation was never clarified throughout the daylong hearing.

Graves said he does not believe there was any link to his dismissal and the controversy in 2005 over Missouri’s fee office system. Democrats had asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Graves violated conflict of interest rules because his wife and brother-in-law accepted lucrative Missouri license office contracts from Gov. Matt Blunt.

That inquiry concluded in May 2005 that “there is no existing conflict of interest that requires further action at this time.” But a former counsel to Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., also called the White House in the spring of 2005 to urge that Graves be replaced because of the fee office controversy. Bond’s office says they were told that was not the reason Graves was replaced.