IGLESIAS: State's Former U.S. Attorney Still a Spokesman on Firings

[L. Coyote]

State's Former U.S. Attorney Still a Spokesman on Firings
Melanie Sloan// Albuquerque Journal - http://citizensforethics.org/node/33619


3 Aug 2008 // The political drama known as the U.S. Attorney Scandal began unfolding Dec. 7, 2006, when an official in the Department of Justice telephoned seven sitting U.S. attorneys and told them they had been fired. No explanations were offered, and no questions were answered. It turned out that two additional prosecutors had also been terminated.

The firings were unprecedented in Justice Department history. While U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, once confirmed to their positions generally they are replaced only upon the advent of a new administration or after they resign of their own volition.

To the surprise of many in the Bush administration, official Washington took immediate notice upon learning that this tradition had been violated. Improper political motives were suspected and then confirmed when it leaked out that the U.S. attorney for New Mexico, David Iglesias, had fielded telephone calls from U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson and Sen. Pete Domenici inquiring as to the timing of indictments in ongoing corruption investigation in an effort to influence the 2006 elections.

Iglesias's new book, "In Justice," written with Davin Seay, tells Iglesias' tale of his rise and fall in New Mexico Republican politics and provides a firsthand account of the firings and the resulting reverberations. ...............