Former US Attorney David Iglesias tells The Word he hopes a special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Michael Mukasey will use subpoena powers to overcome roadblocks encountered by the U.S. Justice Department.
"I've been telling people for two years that my firing was illegal," said Iglesias, from the Saint Anselm College campus in New Hampshire.
A report released Monday singles out the removal of New Mexico's former U.S. Attorney as the most troubling of the controversial firings of nine U.S. attorneys in late 2006.
The Word tracked Iglesias down this morning. He tells us, "The special prosecutor will have more authority to investigate the firings." Iglesias says he supports the move.
"It was the next logical step. We've never had proof beyond a reaonable doubt."
UPDATED - 6:15PM
770KKOB News Director Pat Allen recorded a 2nd telephone interview with Mr. Iglesias. The former Navy Jag, told Allen, this investigation will be complicated, but he believes even the "high and mighty" face consequences.
On Monday, Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed a prosecutor Monday to pursue possible criminal charges against Republicans who were involved in the firings.Mukasey's action follows the leading recommendation of the Justice Department report. That probe harshly criticized Bush administration officials, members of Congress and their aides for the ousters, which were seen by many as politically motivated.
The report states Republican political figures in New Mexico --including Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson --had complained about Iglesias' handling of voter fraud and public corruption cases. The report states those complaints led to his firing.
Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine and Office of Professional Responsibility director Marshall Jarrett said that a prosecutor is needed because serious allegations involving potential criminal conduct have not been fully investigated or resolved.
Iglesias is lecturing at Saint Anselm College (the site of Presidential debates). He's been on tour promoting his book, In Justice: The Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration since the first week in June.
He was invited by University of New Mexico Professor David Albright and will lecture students at a Business Ethics class this week. Iglesias did not know how many book have been sold, but told us the tour will end next month, on October 9th, at Yale University.
Tripp Jennings has more on this story at the New Mexico Independent.
And you can read the complete Department of Justice report online here.
UPDATED - 3:50pm
Visit page 188 in the report (linked above) to read details outlining the possible involvement by several high ranking New Mexico Republicans. Iglesias has accused Senator Pete Domenici, Rep. Heather Wilson, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, Mickey Barnett and Pat Rogers of requesting the White House fire Iglesias for prolonging voter fraud investigations and delaying indictments in the Bernalillo County Metro Courthouse construction corruption trial.
UPDATED - 4:00pm
Sen. Pete Domenici's attorney K. Lee Black has just released a statement regarding the report.
Domenici's lawyer says: The report is complete with innuendos that pass as findings. He also claims the six-term retiring Senator offered to respond to questions in writing during the report's compilation.
Black writes:
The Senate Ethics Committee has already investigated and rejected the allegation that Senator Domenici may have obstructed or otherwise interfered with an ongoing criminal investigation.
After an exhaustive review, taking sworn testimony from numerous witnesses and reviewing thousands of pagers of documents in the process, the Ethics Committee found “not substantial evidence that [Senator Domenici] attempted to improperly influence an ongoing investigation.” Indeed, even Mr. Iglesias himself has conceded that Senator Domenici did not attempt to obstruct his investigations, “I doubt [Senator Domenici] called me to interfere with the courthouse cases” and the Senator “never directly pressured me to take action” on voter fraud cases
To read the rest of the statement click on the photo image to the left.
Iglesias told Heather Clark with the Associated Press he thinks criminal investigations should be pursued against Domenici, Wilson and anyone else who may have broken federal criminal laws.I've said all along that these moves were improper and illegal and now it appears that they were criminal as well.
Our complaints weren't just complaints of disgruntled former employees.
Photo Credit: MG Bralley
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