Your search for david iglesias returned 114 results

Vigil defense lawyer could be the next U.S. attorney

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One of former state Treasurer Robert Vigil’s defense attorneys is under consideration and may be the frontrunner to replace David Iglesias as the U.S. attorney for New Mexico. Fresh off helping win Vigil’s acquittal on 23 of 24 felony counts, Jason Bowles is under consideration for the top federal law enforcement job in the state, a source close to the process confirmed for me. He said Bowles is the frontrunner. Reached by telephone, Bowles wouldn’t confirm that he is being considered or is the frontrunner, but he didn’t deny it. “I can’t comment on any of this,” he told me. Continue Reading

GOP pushes probes of former secretary of state

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Republicans have requested two additional probes of a $3 million shortfall in the secretary of state’s office. There were already several probes of an apparent $3 million shortfall in the secretary of state’s office that resulted from debt that accumulated last year during the tenure of former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron. The money was spent on the switch to paper ballots, and has led to an emergency request to lawmakers to fund that office’s operations for the remainder of the fiscal year. Senate Republican leaders sent letters Monday to the U.S. attorney and the Legislative Finance Committee asking them to look into the situation. That’s in addition to a legal opinion they sought last week from Attorney General Gary King, an audit Gov. Bill Richardson ordered by the Department of Finance and Administration and a federal review of the spending of a $9 million grant to Vigil-Giron’s office. Continue Reading

U.S. attorney controversy spreads beyond N.M.

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It turns out that outgoing U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico was one of several across the nation forced to resign following the November election, and the process of replacing them is creating a controversy in the nation’s capitol. When lawmakers reauthorized the Patriot Act last year, they also approved a little-known provision that changed the rules on appointing U.S. attorneys. Previously, an interim attorney would be appointed by the U.S. district court in the area, and would serve until a nominee of the president was confirmed by the Senate. The Republican-controlled Congress and White House changed that. Now, interim appointments are made by the U.S. attorney general, and can serve until the end of the tenure of that administration. Continue Reading

Domenici recommends four for U.S. attorney post

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Sen. Pete Domenici has recommended four attorneys to replace David Iglesias as the state’s next U.S. attorney, according to the Albuquerque Journal. They are Jim Bibb of Santa Fe, who ran unsuccessfully against Gary King for attorney general last year; T. Glenn Ellington of Santa Fe; Charles Peifer of Albuquerque; and Pat Rogers of Albuquerque. Though a timeline has not been set, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias plans to step down in the next few months at the request of higher-ups in Washington, most likely because of the recent acquittal on most counts of former state Treasurer Robert Vigil and delays in the prosecution of another public corruption case currently under investigation. Domenici made the recommendations at the request of the Bush Administration. “It is my pleasure to recommend four individuals that I believe would serve New Mexico and the nation with distinction as United States Attorney for our state,” Domenici said in a news release. Continue Reading

GOP declines chance to prove voter fraud

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Republicans who have alleged that there is voter fraud in New Mexico were invited to testify before a legislative committee on Wednesday. U.S. Attorney David Iglesias and State Rep. Justine Fox-Young were asked to provide evidence of past claims they have made about voter fraud. Both informed the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee today that they won’t appear tomorrow, said State Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces and the committee’s co-chair. “The panel begins tomorrow and we’re learning, for the first time, that not one wants to appear to substantiate their allegations,” Cervantes said. Fox-Young testified before a U.S. House committee in Las Cruces earlier this year that there was evidence dead people were voting in New Mexico. Continue Reading

Alternate juror says feds set up Vigil

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Will former state Treasurer Robert Vigil escape conviction a second time? The jury in the case has begun deliberations. Meanwhile, one of the alternate jurors, dismissed from duty last night, told KOAT-TV in Albuquerque that the prosecution “didn’t have everything they needed” to prove the case. She said evidence was unconvincing, according to the TV station’s Web site. Asked about hidden video camera that recorded Vigil taking cash from an investment advisor, the alternate juror had this to say: “I seen all of that, and I think that was just a big setup,” according to KOAT. Continue Reading

There’s no proof of widespread voter fraud, but the system does allow for potential misdeeds

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With all the uproar about alleged voter fraud, I thought it might be interesting to look back at the 2004 election, which is often the springboard for such allegations. Kate Nelson of the Albuquerque Tribune summed up the political climate at the time of the 2004 election well in a Jan. 29, 2005 article: “(It was alleged that) apolitical slackers in search of the $7-a-voter bounty some groups were paying simply opened phone books to borrow the fill-in-the-blanks necessities,” she wrote. “County clerks were deluged with good forms and bad. The election was looming. Continue Reading

Grand jury subpoenas records from Domenici

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As part of the probe into the U.S. attorney scandal, it’s also interviewing today a former White House staffer who played a role in Iglesias’ firing A federal grand jury has subpoenaed records from former Sen. Pete Domenici in its criminal investigation of the Bush administration’s U.S. attorney scandal, The Associated Press is reporting. The subpoena was confirmed “by two private attorneys who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not representing the former senator,” the news service reported. The Washington Post was also reporting on the subpoena, citing “lawyers following the case.” Domenici’s attorney, K. Lee Blalack, would not comment to the AP or Post. The reports come almost a week after Talking Points Memo reported that the grand jury was investigating Domenici’s role in the scandal, with a focus on “whether Domenici and other political figures attempted to improperly press (former U.S. Attorney David) Iglesias to bring a criminal prosecution against New Mexico Democrats just prior to the 2006 congressional midterm elections.” If they did, the article stated, their conduct might amount to obstruction of justice. Here’s what the AP has to say about the investigation’s focus: “Career federal prosecutor Nora R. Dannehy is looking into whether former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, other Bush administration officials or Republicans in Congress should face criminal charges in the (U.S. attorney) dismissals,” the article states. Continue Reading

Grand jury probing Domenici, news outlet says

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Talking Points Memo says investigation centers on whether the former senator and others improperly pressured the former U.S. attorney to speed a criminal investigation; Domenici disputes report A federal grand jury is investigating former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici’s role in the Bush administration’s U.S. attorney scandal, according to an Internet news site that won a prestigious journalism award in 2008 for its coverage of the scandal. The criminal investigation, according to an exclusive report by Talking Points Memo, is focused on “whether Domenici and other political figures attempted to improperly press (former U.S. Attorney David) Iglesias to bring a criminal prosecution against New Mexico Democrats just prior to the 2006 congressional midterm elections,” which, if it happened, might amount to obstruction of justice. Investigators are scrutinizing Iglesias’ allegation that he was fired because “Domenici and others believed that he would not manipulate the timing of prosecutions to help Republicans,” the article states.According to the Albuquerque Journal, Domenici and his attorney dispute the report. “I don’t believe that’s right,” the Journal quoted Domenici as saying. “The suggestion in their story that there is an investigation under way that is focusing on Sen. Domenici is false,” Domenici’s attorney, Lee Blalack, was quoted as saying, but he also said he’s “not privy to everything the U.S. government does.”Talking Points Memo’s article states that the focus on Domenici was confirmed by “a federal law enforcement official, two witnesses who have been recently been asked to answer questions from investigators, and an attorney representing a former Justice Department official who has been told that investigators want to question his client.” Domenici and former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson both called Iglesias in October 2006 to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation weeks before the November 2006 election, in which Wilson was facing a tough re-election battle that she ended up narrowly winning. Continue Reading