An 'Absentee' U.S. Attorney Fights Back
Of the nine U.S. attorneys who were summarily fired last year, one who has raised some of the most troubling questions about partisan politics is David Iglesias, the federal prosecutor in New Mexico. Iglesias, who received a strong performance review and had the solid support of his boss, then Deputy Attorney General James Comey, has alleged that he was fired because he refused to file voter fraud charges against prominent Democrats before the November elections in order to help New Mexico Republicans in Congress.
Iglesias has said he received phone calls from Republicans Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson before the elections asking about the status of a case.
That's why Iglesias's three-hour meeting Wednesday with investigators from the Office of Special Counsel should be of some concern to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other Justice and White House officials involved in his dismissal. The special counsel, Scott Bloch, is charged with ensuring that federal agencies don't violate federal laws, including the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act, which prevents discrimination against military service members, and the Hatch Act, which protects federal employees from being coerced into partisan political activity. Iglesias is a captain in the Naval Reserve, where he has served for 18 years. At issue is a handwritten note by former Gonzales aide Monica Goodling, obtained by congressional investigators, describing Iglesias as an "absentee landlord" who was worth replacing.
"I had determined that the only thing Goodling could be referring to," Iglesias told U.S. News, "is my military duty."
Iglesias realized that the calls from Domenici and Wilson and the Goodling note gave him cause to contact Bloch's office, which he did through fellow reservist James Byrne, who just happens to be Bloch's new deputy and is heading the investigation of the U.S. attorney firings.
Gonzales recently testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that President Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, complained to him in the fall of 2006 about "concerns that he had heard" about Iglesias not pursuing "voter fraud, election fraud," in three jurisdictions including New Mexico. But Gonzales said he could not recall key aspects of that chat, including whether it took place over the phone or in person, and does not know when Iglesias was added to the list, other than it was either just before the elections or just after.
Gonzales said that he was "not surprised" that Iglesias "was recommended to me," because Gonzales had "heard about concerns in the performance" of the U.S. attorney, including concerns from Domenici, Rove, and the president himself. But Iglesias says that's nonsense because of his strong performance review and the good reviews of the other attorneys fired. Not only that, Gonzales and his then chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, paid a routine visit to Iglesias's district last July and said nothing to him about performance, even though Gonzales had heard complaints from Domenici by then.
"I had no idea that Senator Domenici was complaining behind my back, but he was contacting Rove, contacting the president, contacting the attorney general," says Iglesias. "I thought he was a friend and a mentor, and not a tormentor."
But if Gonzales, Rove, Domenici, Goodling, and others have some explaining to do, Iglesias has also found himself on the firing line for his failure to report--as Justice Department rules require--the inappropriate phone calls from Domenici and Wilson. Why didn't he report them?
"Misplaced loyalty," says Iglesias. "I felt a loyalty to Heather Wilson and Pete Domenici." But Iglesias says as the weeks went by, he "questioned the wisdom" of not reporting the calls--calls he said made him literally sick. Iglesias finally described what had happened at a press conference on his last day in office. Domenici has apologized for the call and has said he didn't intend to pressure Iglesias in any way.
Iglesisas says he doesn't want his job back. But he does want to get a formal written retraction from the attorney general saying that poor performance was not the reason for his dismissal. More important, he says, he wants to play a small role in restoring the integrity of the Justice Department.
"Part of this is that Rove never really understood that U.S. attorneys are not just like other political appointees," says Iglesias. "We're the only political appointees that can take away your property, take away your life, and take away your liberty, legally."
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