Your search for david iglesias returned 114 results

Washington Post profiles Richardson, Iglesias

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The Washington Post has prominent profiles today of New Mexicans Bill Richardson and David Iglesias on its Web site’s home page. The profile of Richardson includes an article about Monday’s formal announcement that he’s running for president, a photo essay of his career and video of the announcement. Check it out by clicking here. The profile of Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, is a lengthy, personal look at his career and the current controversy surrounding his firing. Check it out by clicking here. Continue Reading

Former Justice official says Iglesias did a good job

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The former No. 2 in the Justice Department said today he thought David Iglesias, former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, was a competent attorney he would not have fired. In fact, James B. Comey told a House Judiciary subcommittee, Iglesias was a “very straight, very able” attorney, the Albuquerque Tribune is reporting. He said he thought only one of eight U.S. attorneys fired last year was weak and should have been fired. The former deputy attorney general, who left in August 2005 to work for Lockheed Martin, said he worked with Iglesias on an initiative to target crime in violent neighborhoods, the Tribune reported. Continue Reading

Probe looks at Rove’s involvement in Iglesias firing

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Karl Rove, political adviser to President Bush, is coming under increasing scrutiny for actions that include his role in the firing of David Iglesias, New Mexico’s former U.S. attorney. The Office of Special Counsel, a federal investigative unit, has begun a far-ranging probe into the firing of Iglesias, White House e-mails and efforts to keep Bush appointees on message, according to the Los Angeles Times. None of that is, necessarily, improper. It’s how it was done that matters. Iglesias has alleged that he was fired for refusing pressure from two members of Congress to speed indictments in a public corruption probe to sway voters in the November 2006 election. Continue Reading

Gonzales says Iglesias should have reported calls

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In further testimony today, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales discussed the allegation that former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico was fired because he refused pressure from two members of Congress to speed indictments in a public corruption probe in time to sway voters in the November 2006 election. Gonzales noted that, had his office known about the phone calls Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., placed to Iglesias in October 2006, his office might have handled differently the decisions on whether and how to fire Iglesias. But his office didn’t know about the phone calls, Gonzales said, because Iglesias didn’t tell anyone. Iglesias has admitted violating a department policy that required the reporting of such contact from members of Congress to his supervisors. Iglesias said under oath several weeks ago that he didn’t report the calls because, at the time, he considered Wilson a friend and Domenici a mentor and was protecting them. Continue Reading

Gonzales talked with Rove, Bush about Iglesias

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During today’s hearing, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales continued his assertion that he wasn’t intimately involved in the decision to fire former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico and approved Iglesias’ firing based on the recommendation of subordinates in the department. Before speaking specifically about Iglesias, Gonzales said he takes responsibility for the mishandling of the firings. There have been repeated contradictions in the explanations by the Justice Department and White House that have caused the situation to explode into a full-blown scandal. “Those eight attorneys deserved better. They deserved better from me and from the Department of Justice,” Gonzales said. Continue Reading

Martinez details additional complaints about Iglesias

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I spoke with Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez today about her comments published in the Albuquerque Journal regarding former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, and she said she can detail a number of examples of problems with Iglesias’ leadership. Martinez said she’s speaking publicly now because many have defended Iglesias as a top prosecutor who was doing a stellar job. It’s well documented that officials with the Justice Department thought highly of Iglesias throughout most of his tenure despite the repeated complaints of U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and others. But Martinez provided two examples of what she said were poor decisions by Iglesias. About two years ago, Martinez said, a deputy with the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department tried to take an undocumented immigrant through a border patrol checkpoint. Continue Reading

Articles show problems with Iglesias’ tenure, but leak of information might also be used against Domenici

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Doña Ana County’s district attorney and Bernalillo County’s sheriff have jumped into the fight over whether former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was competent. Meanwhile, news also leaked this weekend that, sometime shortly after the November 2006 election, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., took his complaints about Iglesias directly to President Bush. In a weekend article published in the Albuquerque Journal, District Attorney Susana Martinez and Sheriff Darren White said Iglesias’ office was unresponsive to their needs on specific cases. The Journal reported that the sheriff wanted help from Iglesias’ office getting wiretaps for the probe into the murder of Deputy James McGrane in 2006, but received no help. Martinez said she had to threaten to go to Bush to get the federal office to take over a drug-related kidnapping and murder case that crossed state lines. Continue Reading

Domenici staffer thanked Karl Rove ‘for everything,’ but did that include getting rid of Iglesias?

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An e-mail that was originally overlooked by congressional investigators but rediscovered this week provides further insight into Karl Rove’s involvement in replacing former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. The e-mail, written to Rove from U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici’s chief of staff, Steve Bell, is dated Jan. 8. Domenici had already recommended four candidates to replace Iglesias, and the e-mail indicated that a fifth name was coming. “To repeat (name redacted) is our overwhelming choice and will take the job,” the e-mail states. Continue Reading

Iglesias lashes out in New York Times op-ed

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In a biting column published today in the New York Times, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias lashed out at his critics and said he wants a written statement from the Justice Department that performance was not the reason for his ouster. Iglesias wrote that the release this week of more than 3,000 pages of Justice Department e-mails makes it clear “that politics played a role” in the ousters of him and seven others late last year. “Of course, as one of the eight, I’ve felt this way for some time,” Iglesias wrote. “But now that the record is out there in black and white for the rest of the country to see, the argument that we were fired for ‘performance related’ reasons (in the words of Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty) is starting to look more than a little wobbly.” Iglesias wrote that U.S. attorneys should be insulated from politics, and recalled former Attorney General John Ashcroft telling him in 2001 “that political should play no role during my tenure.” “I took that message to heart,” he wrote. “Little did I know that I could be fired for not being political.” Iglesias defended his tenure, pointing out that he had “excellent” evaluations, “the biggest political corruption prosecutions in New Mexico history,” a record number of prosecutions and a 95 percent conviction rate. Continue Reading

Iglesias was once considered a top-tier prosecutor

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E-mails released Monday night by the Bush Administration and other sources continue to confirm that, until sometime mid-2006, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was considered one of the brightest federal prosecutors in the nation by higher-ups in the Department of Justice. In April 2004, Kyle Sampson, former chief of staff for Attorney Alberto Gonzales, wrote that Iglesias was one of several who “might be enticed to leave their districts and come to Washington to run the (Executive Office of United States Attorneys), according to an e-mail found among thousands of pages by TPMMcukraker.com. In the e-mail, he described Iglesias as a “diverse up-and-comer; solid.” Despite that, Iglesias didn’t get the job. The Washington Post reported Monday that Iglesias was considered an expert in voter fraud issues by the Justice Department, which twice selected him to train colleagues in pursuing such allegations. The last time was in October, 2005, when he was invited to teach a seminar on voting integrity. Continue Reading

GOP lawyer: Iglesias failed to probe voter fraud claim

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A lawyer representing U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., asked former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias last year to investigate allegations that a Bernalillo County elections worker added fraudulent ballots that benefited the congresswoman’s re-election bid. Iglesias did nothing with the allegations, Wilson’s attorney, Patrick J. Rogers, said. If that’s true, it could be interpreted, in light of other complaints about failed investigations and prosecutions, to suggest that Iglesias was ineffective as U.S. attorney, and could be used to bolster defense of his ouster. It could also be interpreted as evidence that Iglesias ignored the allegations because they involved a fellow Republican and someone who he considered, at the time, a friend. In a Nov. Continue Reading

Documents prove White House involvement in U.S. attorney firings; Domenici spoke to Bush about Iglesias

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Documents that were turned over to Congress today prove that top Bush Administration staffers were intimately involved in the firings of eight former U.S. attorneys including David Iglesias of New Mexico, disproving the Justice Department’s prior assertion that the White House played almost no role. The White House has also revealed that President George W. Bush personally relayed concerns that had been shared with him about a number of U.S. attorneys to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales weeks before the firings. Among those who complained to Bush was U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. Statements made Monday evening by the White House in conjunction with the release of records are the latest in a series of admissions the Bush Administration has made only after the media or others alleged that prior statements weren’t accurate. That failure to be up-front about information has increased suspicion that the firings were political and has caused the scandal to explode. The documents don’t necessarily prove political motives, but do show that officials haven’t been forthcoming about how the firings came about. Continue Reading

Rove passed on complaints about Iglesias, others

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The Bush Administration is acknowledging that presidential adviser Karl Rove took complaints from Republican officials about U.S. attorneys to the Justice Department, further involving the White House in a situation in which officials had previously asserted it played almost no role. Rove, the White House’s chief political operative, did pass along complaints about David Iglesias, former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, McClatchy Newspapers is reporting. A White House spokesman confirmed that Sunday evening. The Justice Department had previously 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. Continue Reading

State GOP chair urged White House to fire Iglesias

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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. Continue Reading

Iglesias reveals political motivation, but the truth might still mean censures for Wilson and Domenici

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It was clear during a lengthy day of testimony today that politics are at play in the investigation into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, but there are also serious allegations being probed. Those made by David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, are among the most grave. Politics aside, one thing seems clear: Regardless of which versions of October phone calls are closer to the truth, the two members of Congress who called Iglesias to inquire about a pending public corruption probe could be guilty of ethics violations that might earn them censures. As it did Monday in the case of Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint today against Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M. It asked the House Committee on Standards for Ethical Conduct to investigate whether her call to Iglesias violated ethics rules. Many analysts say Congressional rules prevent direct contact with prosecutors about pending cases, even if no pressure is applied. Continue Reading