Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was fired after Sen. Pete Domenici, who had been unhappy with Iglesias for some time, made a personal appeal to the White House, the Journal has learned. Domenici had complained about Iglesias before, at one point going to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before taking his request to the president as a last resort. The senior senator from New Mexico had listened to criticism of Iglesias going back to 2003 from sources ranging from law enforcement officials to Republican Party activists. Domenici, who submitted Iglesias’ name for the job and guided him through the confirmation process in 2001, had tried at various times to get more white-collar crime help for the U.S. Attorney’s Office— even if Iglesias didn’t want it. At one point, the six-term Republican senator tried to get Iglesias moved to a Justice Department post in Washington, D.C., but Iglesias told Justice officials he wasn’t interested.
In the spring of 2006, Domenici told Gonzales he wanted Iglesias out. Gonzales refused. He told Domenici he would fire Iglesias only on orders from the president. At some point after the election last Nov. 6, Domenici called Bush’s senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and told him he wanted Iglesias out and asked Rove to take his request directly to the president. Domenici and Bush subsequently had a telephone conversation about the issue. The conversation between Bush and Domenici occurred sometime after the election but before the firings of Iglesias and six other U.S. attorneys were announced on Dec. 7.
Iglesias’ name first showed up on a Nov. 15 list of federal prosecutors who would be asked to resign. It was not on a similar list prepared in October. The Journal confirmed the sequence of events through a variety of sources familiar with the firing of Iglesias, including sources close to Domenici. The senator’s office declined comment. The House and Senate Judiciary committees are investigating Iglesias’ firing as well as the dismissals of six other U.S. attorneys.
It is unclear to me exactly why Senator Domenici was so focused on the particular cases [white collar crime in the awarding of construction contracts] and why Iglesias was resisting this focus. The details of New Mexico politics are not so accessible in the available articles. But it is very clear that Senator Domenici brought direct pressure to bear by following partisan channels – Rove to Bush to Gonzales. The specific case has now been filed by Iglesias’ replacement though he’s only been there a month.
So there are several questions all muddied together. First, Was Iglesias failing to file an important case? or Was Domenici pushing a partisan case to futher Republican election goals? or Both? Second, independent of the facts, Is Domenici’s direct intervention via Rove to the President a partisanization of the Justice Department? I have no idea about answer the first questions. New Mexico is a long way away and its internal workings are hardly the topic of much discussion in the national press. But in my mind, the answer to the second question is a screaming Yes!
- Senator calls Rove about Prosecutor
- President talks to Senator
- Prosecutor fired
Then there’s this email we’ve already seen:
If all of this is okay, Why the panicky email? If it’s okay, Why the attempted deception? The referenced article in the email is here. Trying to parse the local issues in New Mexico, I searched the Alberquerque Tribune for "Iglesias." It’s a tangled web that centers on winning the House seat in 2006, won narrowly by the Republican [1%]. I just can’t follow it, but it does seem that Iglesias’ firing was part of a Republican strategy to win this hotly contested seat in Congress. I hope someone in Albequerque will write a summary that makes the details more intelligible to the rest of us.
It smells very, very rotten…
Prior to the 2006 midterm election Domenici called and pressured then-United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico David Iglesias to speed up indictments in a federal corruption investigation, immediately prior to an election, that involved at least one former Democratic state senator. When Iglesias said an indictment wouldn’t be handed down until at least December, Domenici said "I’m very sorry to hear that" – and the line went dead. Iglesias was fired one week later by the Bush Administration. A communication by a senator or House member with a federal prosecutor regarding an ongoing criminal investigation is a violation of ethics rules. In a March 2007 statement, Domenici admitted making such a call.[3] House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., issued subpoenas to require Iglesias and three other ousted U.S. attorneys to testify before Congress.[4]
Domenici’s intial denial, Domenici later admitted calling Iglesias, though Domenici claimed he never used the word "November" when he called Iglesias about an ongoing Albuquerque courthouse corruption case.[5] Domenici has denied trying influence Iglesias, and has hired lawyer K. Lee Blalack II to represent him.[6]
According to the Justice Department, Domenici called the Department and demanded Iglesias be replaced on four occasions.[7]
According to the Washington Post, on the day of the firing (Dec 7, 2006) William Kelley, a deputy to White House counsel Harriet Miers, said in an email that Domenici’s chief of staff was "happy as a clam" about the Iglesias firing. A week later, a Justice Department email to the White House counsel stated: "Domenici is going to send over names tomorrow (not even waiting for Iglesias’s body to cool)."
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