1 Boring Old Man

Rove "Driving Force" Behind US Attorney Firings
t r u t h o u t
by: Jason Leopold
August 13, 2009

^{Political adviser Karl Rove and other officials inside George W. Bush’s White House pushed for the firing of a key federal prosecutor because he wasn’t cooperating with Republican plans for indicting Democrats and their allies before the 2006 election, according to internal documents and depositions… In a recent interview with The New York Times and The Washington Post, Rove downplayed his role in the firings, saying he only acted as a "conduit" for complaints that Republican Party officials and GOP lawmakers sent to him about the federal prosecutors. The documents tell a different story.}

^{The documents reveal that Rove, his White House aides and then-White House counsel Harriet Miers actively participated in the decision to oust New Mexico US Attorney David Iglesias because Republicans had wanted him to bring charges against Democrats regarding alleged voter fraud and other issues. Iglesias refused to do that. According to Miers’s closed-door testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, a "very agitated" Rove phoned her from New Mexico, apparently in September 2006, and told her that Iglesias was "a serious problem and he wanted something done about it." At the time of the phone call, Rove had just met with New Mexico Republican Party officials angry at Iglesias, who was refusing to proceed with voter fraud cases because he felt the evidence was weak and because pre-election indictments would violate Justice Department guidelines.}

^{Miers said she responded to Rove’s call by getting on the phone to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty and passing along the message that Rove "is getting lots of complaints." Miers added, "it was a problem." About one month later, Iglesias was added to the list of US attorneys to be removed. But the documents show that White House dissatisfaction with Iglesias over his resistance to bringing politically motivated cases against Democrats had been building for more than a year. On June 28, 2005, Scott Jennings, one of Rove’s aides, sent an e-mail to Tim Griffin, another Rove aide, asking what could be done to remove Iglesias. "I would really like to move forward with getting rid of NM US ATTY," Jennings wrote, complaining that "Iglesias has done nothing" on prosecuting voter fraud cases and adding: "We’re getting killed out there"…}

^{Besides the Bush White House pressure for ousting Iglesias, powerful New Mexico Republicans also weighed in. In October 2006, a month before the midterm elections that cost Republicans control of Congress, an e-mail chain started by Rep. Heather Wilson (R-New Mexico) faulted Iglesias for not using his office in a manner that would help Wilson in her reelection campaign. Wilson’s e-mail included a news report about an FBI probe of Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pennsylvania) as an example of criminal investigations proceeding close to election day.}

^{Steve Bell, chief of staff to New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici, forwarded the e-mail to Jennings at Rove’s White House shop, with a note saying it "seems like other U.S. attorneys can do their work even in election season. And the FBI has already admitted they have turned over their evidence [in a federal corruption probe] to the [U.S. Attorney] in [New Mexico] and are merely awaiting his action."}

^{Jennings then passed along the e-mail to Rove, saying Iglesias was "shy about doing his job on [Patricia] Madrid," a Democratic Congressional candidate who would lose the 2006 election to Wilson by only 800 votes. Last year, Wilson told Justice Department watchdogs investigating the US attorney purge that the context of her e-mail was more of a "heads up" to the recipients. She said that if she were asked by reporters about an FBI investigation into Madrid, she would confirm it. Madrid was New Mexico’s former attorney general who was involved with a political action committee that was allegedly under scrutiny.}

^{Domenici also intervened, personally lobbying Bush’s top aides to fire Iglesias, according to the documents. Between September 2005 and April 2006, Domenici called Attorney General Alberto Gonzales three times to complain about Iglesias’s handling of voter fraud and corruption probes and to ask that he be fired. Gonzales testified to Congress that he did not recall Domenici ever making such a request. Gonzales resigned in August 2007 amid political fallout from the prosecutor-firing scandal.}

^{On October 4, 2006, Domenici also called Deputy Attorney General McNulty, "expressing concern about Iglesias’s lack of fitness for the job of U.S. Attorney." At one point, according to Rove’s testimony, Domenici wanted to speak with President Bush to press his case, but Rove talked him out of it. However, in October 2006, the senator personally asked Bush’s chief of staff Josh Bolten to replace Iglesias, according to White House phone logs and e-mails.}

^{In Congressional testimony, Iglesias said he also received telephone calls from Domenici and Wilson in October 2006 inquiring about the timing of an indictment against former state Sen. Manny Aragon, a Democrat, and other Democrats who were involved in a courthouse construction project. Domenici’s interventions prompted a Senate Ethics Committee investigation, which resulted last year in a letter of reprimand for creating an "appearance of impropriety." Special prosecutor Dannehy is probing possible obstruction of justice charges against Domenici and his former aide Steve Bell.}

^{Dannehy secured the testimony last April of Scott O’Neal, the assistant FBI special agent in charge of the Albuquerque field office, who reportedly informed Domenici or his aide Bell about the status of the FBI’s investigation of alleged Democratic wrongdoing, according to legal sources who requested anonymity because of secrecy surrounding the probe. In an interview, former US Attorney Iglesias said the briefing to Domenici and/or Bell, if it did take place, would be significant because it would have required approval from himself or his former colleagues who never received a formal request from O’Neal or his FBI superiors. The US attorney’s manual states that "personnel of the Department of Justice shall not respond to questions about the existence of an ongoing investigation or comment on its nature or progress, including such things as the issuance or serving of a subpoena, prior to the public filing of the document"…}