Your search for david iglesias returned 114 results

U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to step down

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U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, who oversees the New Mexico offices, will resign sometime in the next few months. Iglesias, a Republican, has decided to step down after talking with officials in Washington, D.C., according to the Albuquerque Tribune. It’s normal for a U.S. attorney to finish out a president’s tenure, so Iglesias was expected to stay on until at least 2008. His resignation apparently has to do with high-profile public corruption investigations. His office worked out plea bargains with former state Treasurer Michael Montoya and others in the treasurer scandal, but former Treasurer Robert Vigil was acquitted recently on 23 of 24 felony counts he faced. Continue Reading

Bush staffer asked why Iglesias didn’t go after Madrid

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E-mail questioning why Iglesias was ‘shy about doing his job on Madrid’ was about an FBI probe of Madrid, not the 2006 election, Wilson says E-mails released today may appear to indicate that someone in the White House had the race between former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., and Democratic challenger Patricia Madrid in mind when discussing former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias’ job performance in the weeks before he was fired. But if Wilson is to be believed, the FBI was investigating Madrid at the time, and a reference to Madrid in the e-mails had to do with that probe, not the election. The e-mail in question was sent from White House staffer Scott Jennings to White House Political Director Karl Rove on Oct. 15, 2006. “… The US Attorney in PA has no trouble going after (former Rep. Curt) Weldon, so why should the US Attorney in New Mexico be shy about doing his job on Madrid,” it states. Continue Reading

In new film, Iglesias says Gonzales lied under oath

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It appears that a documentary about the U.S. attorney scandal that plagued the Bush administration is going to be quite revealing — or salacious, depending on your point of view. InJustice, which is being produced by Storyville Films, is still in production, according to information about the documentary on the company’s Web site. But the company has released a 10-minute trailer. In the trailer, you’ll see a hint of emotion from David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico who was among those fired, when he alleges that former Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson pressured him to speed indictments in a case involving a high-ranking Democrat in time to sway voters in the 2006 election. “It was un-American, and the more I thought about it — in fact, I’m getting angry again just thinking about it, because it’s not what this country stands for,” he says. Continue Reading

Iglesias opines on report, appointment of prosecutor

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Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico is out with two new commentaries on the recently released report on the firings of nine U.S. attorneys, including him, which found that the reasons Bush administration staffers gave Congress last year for firing Iglesias were hogwash. In the first, an Oct. 1 commentary published in the Los Angeles Times, Iglesias wrote that he was pleased that the report “fully vindicated” what he and his fired colleagues have been saying: “Improper politicization has crippled the (Justice) department, and the Bush administration’s culture of partisanship-loyalty above all has done a terrible disservice to this country.” “Justice was compromised. Not only were my colleagues and I not insulated from politics — as we should have been in our jobs as prosecutors — but we were fired for the most partisan of reasons,” Iglesias wrote. “In my case, it was because powerful Republicans in Congress and the White House believed that I had not done my duty as a Republican to bring criminal charges against Democrats in the run-up to the 2006 elections.” Iglesias wrote that the “lack of adult supervision at Justice was breathtaking; no one reined in the young bulls in the constitutional china shop.” He also wrote the report indicates that the reasons for the firings were based on “rumor and innuendo rather than evidence.” In a Friday column published on The Huffington Post, Iglesias wrote about the appointment of a federal prosecutor to decide whether criminal charges are warranted. Continue Reading

Iglesias awaits ‘magnum opus’ on attorney firings

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David Iglesias says Thursday’s “qualified admonition” of U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., by the Senate Ethics Committee is reason to celebrate, but the most important investigation of the U.S. attorney scandal is yet to come. The former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, in an exclusive interview, said he was celebrating on Thursday evening after learning about the letter the committee issued to Domenici upon the conclusion of its investigation. While finding no “substantial evidence” that Domenici “attempted to improperly influence an ongoing investigation” in his October 2006 phone call to Iglesias, the committee scolded the senator, saying he should have known that the call would create “an appearance of impropriety that reflected unfavorably on the Senate.” Iglesias said he agrees that Domenici’s actions created the appearance of impropriety. “This was a public rebuke for improper actions on Domenici’s part,” he said. The committee didn’t find that Domenici had pressured Iglesias to speed indictments in a public corruption probe in time to sway voters in the November 2006 election – allegations that Iglesias has made publicly and under oath. Continue Reading

Probe finds no proof that Domenici pressured Iglesias

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The Senate Ethics Committee has found no evidence that Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., attempted to improperly influence an ongoing investigation during his October 2006 phone call to then-U.S. Attorney to David Iglesias but says Domenici should have known that the call would create the appearance of impropriety. The committee issued a “public letter of qualified admonition” to Domenici today, more than 13 months after it began its investigation. You can read the letter by clicking here. “The committee finds no substantial evidence to determine that you attempted to improperly influence an ongoing investigation,” the committee members wrote in the letter. “The committee does find that you should have known that a federal prosecutor receiving such a telephone call, coupled with an approaching election which may have turned on or been influenced by the prosecutor’s actions in the corruption matter, created an appearance of impropriety that reflected unfavorably on the Senate.” Domenici and U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., separately called Iglesias in October 2006 to discuss an ongoing corruption investigation related to construction of the Bernalillo County Courthouse. Continue Reading

Report: Probe of Domenici’s call to Iglesias will end

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It appears as though the ethics inquiry into Sen. Pete Domenici’s involvement in the U.S. attorney scandal will end now that the senator has announced his coming retirement. The Web site Truthout.org is reporting that the inquiry into Domenici’s October 2006 phone call to former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias won’t become the topic of a formal investigation. The reason? According to the Web site, a source who works closely with the Senate Ethics Committee said it’s Domenici’s “mental state.” Domenici is retiring at the end of 2008 because he is suffering from frontotemporal lobar degeneration, which can lead to frontotemporal dementia. Though Domenici’s disease is in its early stages and only showed a slight progression for the first time at a September checkup, the disease can cause dysfunction of the parts of the brain that are important for organization, decision-making and control of mood and behavior. Continue Reading

Former U.S. Attorney Iglesias signs book deal

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He’s mentioned the possibility for several months, but news spread on Friday that David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, has signed a deal to write a book about his experiences. The book is expected to focus heavily on his time in the Bush Administration and his role in the scandal that resulted in the firings of several U.S. attorneys last year. Iglesias’ public allegations caused the firings to become a national scandal that is leading to a coming showdown between Congress and the Bush Administration. The book promises to include a number of interesting discussions of the operation of the Department of Justice and White House. It will be published by John Wiley & Sons and is expected to be released in April 2008, TPM Muckraker is reporting. Continue Reading

Iglesias to talk to ethics committee about Wilson

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The U.S. House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct may finally be getting around to considering a complaint filed against Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., over her role in the U.S. attorney controversy. David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, will be interviewed today by the staff of the committee, the Albuquerque Tribune is reporting. It’s the first sign that the committee might consider the request made in March by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for a probe of the situation. House rules generally require a complaint from a House member before such an investigation can take place. Today’s interview is apparently a preliminary discussion. Continue Reading

Watch the newest Iglesias interview

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David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico who has been at the center of the national controversy surrounding the firings of a number of federal prosecutors, spoke this weekend with Julia Goldberg, the editor of the Santa Fe Reporter, in Portland at the annual Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Convention. Iglesias, in the interview, talked about loyalty and politics and about the differences between Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his predecessor, John Ashcroft. He said Ashcroft led an administration that was “working for the people,” while Gonzales leads one that is “working for the White House.” “I can’t imagine Ashcroft putting up with some of the nonsense that Gonzales did,” Iglesias said. “… I actually always found Ashcroft to be a straight shooter.” Iglesias also discussed the phone calls he received in October from Rep. Heather Wilson and Sen. Pete Domenici and his assertion that the two pressured him to speed indictments in a public corruption probe to sway voters in the November 2006 election. Iglesias acknowledged, as he’s done before, not reporting the calls even though not doing so violated department policy. Continue Reading

Iglesias walking a fine line between amplifying and contradicting previous testimony before Congress

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In a new interview, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias comes close to contradicting testimony he gave before a Senate committee in March that has led to an ethics inquiry into the actions of Sen. Pete Domenici. In an interview published today in the weekly Alibi in Albuquerque, Iglesias said he doubts Domenici intended to interfere in the federal investigation into construction of the Bernalillo Metro Courthouse, which has since resulted in the indictments of four, including former state Senate President Manny Aragon, and plea bargains for three others. “Could his phone call to me (concerning the timing of charges in the courthouse corruption investigation) constitute a criminal offense? I’m not sure. I suspect ethics charges are more likely than criminal charges as I doubt he called me to interfere with the courthouse cases,” the Alibi quoted him as saying. Continue Reading