State GOP chair urged White House to fire Iglesias

The chair of the Republican Party of New Mexico says he urged two White House staffers, including Bush political adviser Karl Rove, to fire former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, raising new questions about the White House’s involvement in the decision.

In an interview with McClatchy Newspapers, Allen Weh said he complained in 2005 to a Rove aide about Iglesias, then, during a late 2006 visit to the White House, asked Rove about it.

“Is anything ever going to happen to that guy?” Weh told the news service he asked Rove.

“He’s gone,” Weh claims Rove replied.

“I probably said something close to ‘Hallelujah,’” Weh told the news service.

Weh urged the firing of Iglesias, a fellow Republican, in part because of his disappointment that he hadn’t issued any indictments as a result of a widespread voter fraud investigation that followed the 2004 election. Many Republicans believe they presented more than 100 verifiable cases of voter fraud to Iglesias, but the investigation quietly died in the first few months of 2005 without action.

The Justice Department has asserted that the White House was only involved in the decision to fire eight U.S. attorneys, including Iglesias, by approving, after the department made the decisions, a list of those who would be fired on Dec. 7. Weh’s statements raise questions about whether that is true.

Weh told the news service he didn’t know whether Rove or other White House staffers were directly involved in the firings.

The news service couldn’t reach Rove for comment, and White House and Justice Department officials had no immediate comment.

Reached by telephone, Weh told me he had no comment beyond what was in the article.

“The story is about an incompetent United States attorney, and that’s where I think your focus needs to be,” he said.

He told the news service Iglesias’ firing wasn’t about partisan politics.

“There’s nothing we’ve done that’s wrong,” Weh said. “It wasn’t that Iglesias wasn’t looking out for Republicans. He just wasn’t doing his job, period.”

Iglesias has accused U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., of pressuring him to speed indictments in a public corruption probe involving at least one high-ranking Democrat in time to sway voters in the November 2006 election. He alleges he was fired after refusing to do it.

Domenici and Wilson admit to calling Iglesias in October to inquire about the investigation but say they didn’t pressure him. Domenici is the subject of a Senate ethics probe, and it’s likely that Wilson will face a similar investigation.

The larger scandal of the eight fired attorneys has rocked Washington as congressional Democrats investigate whether the firings were political. Coupled with last week’s revelation that the FBI illegally abused power granted under the Patriot Act in spying on Americans, the scandal has created a great deal of pressure for U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign, the Associated Press is reporting.