The NYT has a detailed piece on fired USA David C. Iglesias: G.O.P. Anger in Swing State Eased Attorney’s Exit
State Republican leaders demanded a criminal investigation. And with the television cameras rolling, the United States attorney, David C. Iglesias, a boyish-looking Republican, promised a thorough one. “It appears that mischief is afoot,” Mr. Iglesias said, “and questions are lurking in the shadows.”The inquiry he began, however, never resulted in charges, so frustrating Republican officials here that they began an extraordinary campaign to get rid of him that reached all the way to President Bush.
Mr. Iglesias was the target of fierce criticism by lawmakers and political operatives, more so than any of the other seven prosecutors whose dismissals have set off a furor in Washington, interviews and a review of Justice Department documents show.
Rated a top performer by department officials early in 2005, Mr. Iglesias was the last added to the department’s hit list. That occurred last fall soon after a group of lawmakers, including Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, complained about lax voter fraud prosecutions to Mr. Bush, who relayed those concerns to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.
Several Republican leaders here insist that while their main grievances involved partisan issues, from possible voter fraud to corruption cases involving prominent Democrats, they also considered Mr. Iglesias too cautious and ineffective.
So, what do we have here?
1. Allegations of voter fraud on behalf of Democrats in New Mexico
2. Iglesias looks into the matter, but does not file charges.
3. Political actors (the state’s party chair, a lawyer for the Bush campaign, a Republican Senator and a Republican Representative (who wanted her Democratic opponent investigated), all call Iglesias to register their concerns that Iglesias isn’t moving forward.
4. Iglesias, who had had excellent performance reviews up and until this point in time loses his job.
Even odder is the fact that Iglesias had been previously recognized for his work on voter fraud. Via WaPo: Justice Dept. Recognized Prosecutor’s Work on Election Fraud Before His Firing
One of the U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration after Republican complaints that he neglected to prosecute voter fraud had been heralded for his expertise in that area by the Justice Department, which twice selected him to train other federal prosecutors to pursue election crimes.David C. Iglesias, who was dismissed as U.S. attorney for New Mexico in December, was one of two chief federal prosecutors invited to teach at a “voting integrity symposium” in October 2005. The symposium was sponsored by Justice’s public integrity and civil rights sections and was attended by more than 100 prosecutors from around the country, according to an account by Iglesias that a department spokesman confirmed.
[...]
According to Iglesias, the agency invited him back as a trainer last summer, just months before a Justice official telephoned to fire him. He said he could not attend the second time because of his obligations as an officer in the Navy Reserve.
The fact that Justice officials held out Iglesias to his colleagues as an exemplar of good work on voter fraud conflicts with an explanation offered last week by a senior aide to President Bush that eight U.S. attorneys had been removed in part because of complaints that some had been lax in pursuing election fraud. Bush told Gonzales last fall that he was aware of such complaints, said Dan Bartlett, counselor to the president, who cited New Mexico as one of three states in which the complaints had arisen.
The whole situation is quite curious, to put it kindly.
Now, legally there is no doubt that the President had the right to fire Iglesias. However, the question of whether it was proper to do so is an open one. Given that several of the other fired USAs were involved in cases that were potentially politically problematic for the GOP, the red flags should be obvious.
Technorati Tags: DoJ, USAs, Fired attorneys, David Iglesias
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March 19th, 2007 at 9:04 am
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