{"id":1358,"date":"2007-03-06T12:58:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-06T18:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/house-panel-begins-hearing-on-fired-u-s-attorneys\/"},"modified":"2007-03-06T12:58:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-06T18:58:00","slug":"house-panel-begins-hearing-on-fired-u-s-attorneys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/house-panel-begins-hearing-on-fired-u-s-attorneys\/","title":{"rendered":"House panel begins hearing on fired U.S. attorneys"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law<\/a> is about to begin its hearings on the fired U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> attorneys. You can watch live by clicking here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to post updates on this hearing as frequently as I did during the Senate hearing, but will report any new information and specifics about testimony provided by David Iglesias, the former U.S.<\/st1:country-region> attorney for New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Scroll down to read about this mornings\u2019 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 12:45 p.m.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The House subcommittee hearing is on a bill<\/a> that would repeal a provision of the Patriot Act that wasn\u2019t known by most until the U.S.<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> attorney scandal erupted. The provision allows the Bush Administration to bypass the Senate confirmation process by appointing \u201cinterim\u201d U.S.<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> attorneys who can serve indefinitely.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The bill would repeal that provision.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

During the hearing, William E. Moschella, principal associate deputy attorney general, said the attorneys were fired for reasons of \u201cpolicy\u201d under the pretext of \u201cperformance-related issues.\u201d He also said that, \u201cin hindsight,\u201d the situation \u201ccould have been handled better.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He said the department should have done a better job of explaning to the U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> attorneys why they were forced to resign.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He said the administration has never, \u201cnot once,\u201d removed a U.S.<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> attorney to retaliate for an investigation of a public corruption scandal, and has never tried to influence a public corruption case.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt would never do so,\u201d Moschella said.<\/p>\n

\n

As to why Iglesias was fired, Moschella said \u201cthere was a general sense \u2026 that the district was in need of greater leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Iglesias had delegated to his first assistant the overall running of his office,\u201d Moschella said, adding that he should not have done that.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Iglesias said Moschella\u2019s explanation that he was forced out to make way for \u201cnew blood\u201d was the first given to him.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cMy only question is, \u2018What happened to the old blood?\u2019\u201d Iglesias said. \u201cI think I\u2019ve been an outstanding leader for the district and I think we accomplished what we needed to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 2:20 p.m.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Under questioning, Iglesias restated his versions of phone calls he received from Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a> and Sen. Pete Domenici<\/a>, R-N.M. in October, telling the same stories he shared with the Senate panel earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cMy sense was that they expected me to take action on these widely publicized public corruption cases and they wanted me to do it immediately,\u201d Iglesias told the House panel. \u201c\u2026 I had the distinct impression that I was to take action before November.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In explaining why he didn\u2019t report the phone calls, Iglesias said he \u201cfelt terribly conflicted about having to report it.\u201d He faced a harsh line of questioning from Rep. Chris Cannon<\/a>, R-Utah about his decision to not report the calls, a decision that violated department policy.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 4:10 p.m.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Iglesias, under additional questioning, said he believes Domenici ended the October phone call by hanging up on him.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Cannon said he knows Domenici as an intelligent man and does not believe Iglesias\u2019 characterization of the phone call.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t believe your characterization of how the phone call happened,\u201d Cannon told Iglesias.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Though the hearing is ongoing with other witnesses, the fired U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> attorneys are done testifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law is about to begin its hearings on the fired U.S. attorneys. You can watch live by clicking here. I\u2019m not going to post updates on this hearing as frequently as I did during the Senate hearing, but will report any new information and specifics about testimony […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}