{"id":1380,"date":"2007-03-11T15:21:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-11T21:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/state-gop-chair-urged-white-house-to-fire-iglesias\/"},"modified":"2007-03-11T15:21:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-11T21:21:00","slug":"state-gop-chair-urged-white-house-to-fire-iglesias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/state-gop-chair-urged-white-house-to-fire-iglesias\/","title":{"rendered":"State GOP chair urged White House to fire Iglesias"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The chair of the Republican Party of New Mexico<\/a> says he urged two White House staffers, including Bush political adviser Karl Rove<\/a>, to fire former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias<\/a>, raising new questions about the White House\u2019s involvement in the decision. <\/p>\n

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

In an interview with McClatchy Newspapers<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIs anything ever going to happen to that guy?\u201d Weh told the news service he asked Rove.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cHe\u2019s gone,\u201d Weh claims Rove replied.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI probably said something close to \u2018Hallelujah,\u2019\u201d Weh told the news service.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Weh urged the firing of Iglesias, a fellow Republican, in part because of his disappointment that he hadn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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

The Justice Department has asserted that the White House was only involved in the decision to fire eight U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> attorneys, including Iglesias, by approving, after the department made the decisions, a list of those who would be fired on Dec. 7. Weh\u2019s statements raise questions about whether that is true.<\/p>\n

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

Weh told the news service he didn\u2019t know whether Rove or other White House staffers were directly involved in the firings.<\/p>\n

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

The news service couldn\u2019t reach Rove for comment, and White House and Justice Department officials had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n

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

Reached by telephone, Weh told me he had no comment beyond what was in the article.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe story is about an incompetent United States<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> attorney, and that\u2019s where I think your focus needs to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

He told the news service Iglesias\u2019 firing wasn\u2019t about partisan politics.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing we\u2019ve done that\u2019s wrong,\u201d Weh said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t that Iglesias wasn\u2019t looking out for Republicans. He just wasn\u2019t doing his job, period.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Iglesias has accused U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici<\/a> and Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

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

Domenici and Wilson admit to calling Iglesias in October to inquire about the investigation but say they didn\u2019t pressure him. Domenici is the subject of a Senate ethics probe, and it\u2019s likely that Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> will face a similar investigation.<\/p>\n

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

The larger scandal of the eight fired attorneys has rocked Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> as congressional Democrats investigate whether the firings were political. Coupled with last week\u2019s 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<\/a> to resign, the Associated Press<\/a> is reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s involvement in the decision. In an interview with McClatchy Newspapers, Allen Weh said he complained in 2005 to a […]<\/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-1380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380","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=1380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}