Fired U.S. Attorney Says Lawmakers Pressured Him
The political fighting over the mass firing of federal prosecutors has suddenly heated up again with David C. Iglesias, the departing U.S. attorney in New Mexico, claiming that two members of Congress attempted to pressure him into speeding up a probe of Democrats just before the November elections.
Iglesias is saying that, because he refused to do so, he suspects that these same Congressmen approached the White House and asked for him to be fired as he was not "a team player".
Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse called Iglesias's allegations "flatly false" and said that, if this were true, Iglesias would have had a duty to report these calls.Iglesias declined to name the lawmakers who called him, but he said in an interview: "I didn't give them what they wanted. That was probably a political problem that caused them to go to the White House or whomever and complain that I wasn't a team player."
Iglesias's allegations were met with strong denials from the Justice Department yesterday but prompted the Democratic-controlled House and Senate judiciary committees to announce that they would issue subpoenas for testimony from Iglesias and other fired prosecutors if necessary. Iglesias said he would not testify unless subpoenaed.
However, the Justice Departments case is slightly weak because the seven men who were fired were all fired without any actual reason ever being given.
Of course, since their firings Alberto Gonzales has employed a new change in Federal law which allows him to appoint interim prosecutors indefinitely.In addition to Iglesias's probe of Democrats, fired prosecutors in Arizona, Nevada and California were conducting corruption probes involving Republicans at the time of their dismissals.
"These are extremely serious and very troubling allegations coming from a man of great integrity," said Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has been leading a Senate Judiciary Committee inquiry into the firings. "They call into question every other firing. We will continue to pursue this until we get to the bottom of what happened and pass legislation to prevent it from ever happening again."
There really is no trick these buggers won't play.In an interview Tuesday, Iglesias said the two lawmakers called him about a well-known criminal investigation involving a Democratic legislator. He declined to provide their party affiliation, but his comments indicated the callers were Republicans.
New Mexico media outlets reported last year that the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in Albuquerque had opened a probe into allegations involving former Democratic state senator Manny Aragon and government construction projects in Bernalillo County. No charges have been filed in the case.
Iglesias said the lawmakers who called him seemed focused on whether charges would be filed before the November elections. He said the calls made him feel "pressured to hurry the subsequent cases and prosecutions" but said he did not receive similar contacts from anyone in the executive branch. He acknowledged he made a mistake by not reporting the calls to the Justice Department.
Referring to the calls, Iglesias said: "I suspect that was the reason I was asked to step down, but I don't know that I'll ever know."
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2 comments:
"pass legislation to prevent it from ever happening again."
Perhaps if Congress started reading the legislation they passed in first place, i.e. the Patriot Act, they wouldn't need to be passing more legislation to countermand the previous legislation they passed and failed to scrutinize or think about.
Which reminds of a recent attempt by one congressman to introduce a bill that would require members of Congress to read any and all bills before voting on them. The bill failed to make it to the House floor.
That's hysterical. I had heard that they didn't even bother to read the Patriot Act before they passed it.
It's a strange political system you've got going there.
Here things are debated in minutiae and passed between both Houses for an eternity.
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