{"id":1447,"date":"2007-03-21T08:51:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-21T14:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/iglesias-lashes-out-in-new-york-times-op-ed\/"},"modified":"2007-03-21T08:51:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-21T14:51:00","slug":"iglesias-lashes-out-in-new-york-times-op-ed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/iglesias-lashes-out-in-new-york-times-op-ed\/","title":{"rendered":"Iglesias lashes out in New York Times op-ed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In a biting column published today in the New York Times<\/a>, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n

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

Iglesias wrote that the release this week of more than 3,000 pages of Justice Department e-mails makes it clear \u201cthat politics played a role\u201d in the ousters of him and seven others late last year.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cOf course, as one of the eight, I\u2019ve felt this way for some time,\u201d Iglesias wrote. \u201cBut 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 \u2018performance related\u2019 reasons (in the words of Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty) is starting to look more than a little wobbly.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Iglesias wrote that U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> attorneys should be insulated from politics, and recalled former Attorney General John Ashcroft telling him in 2001 \u201cthat political should play no role during my tenure.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI took that message to heart,\u201d he wrote. \u201cLittle did I know that I could be fired for not being political.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Iglesias defended his tenure, pointing out that he had \u201cexcellent\u201d evaluations, \u201cthe biggest political corruption prosecutions in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> history,\u201d a record number of prosecutions and a 95 percent conviction rate.<\/p>\n

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

In recent weeks, New Mexico Republicans have said they began pushing for Iglesias\u2019 removal after he failed to issue any indictments following a widespread investigation of voter-fraud allegations that resulted from the 2004 election. He notes that those critics didn\u2019t review the FBI investigation and don\u2019t have experience as prosecutors, and said what they wanted is \u201creprehensible \u2013 namely that I should have proceeded without having proof beyond a reasonable doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe public has a right to believe that prosecution decisions are made on legal, not political, grounds,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

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

Iglesias wrote that, of more than 100 complaints made, \u201cI felt there was one possible case that should be prosecuted federally.\u201d He wrote that he worked with the FBI and Justice Department on the case, but \u201ccould not overcome evidentiary problems,\u201d and said the FBI and Justice Department \u201cdid not disagree with my decision in the end not to prosecute.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Iglesias wrote that \u201cgood has already come from this scandal,\u201d noting that the Senate voted Tuesday to take away the attorney general\u2019s power to appoint interim U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> attorneys indefinitely. President Bush<\/a> expressed gratitude for the service of the fired U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> attorneys Tuesday, and Iglesias wrote that it was \u201cthe first time I have been thanked.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cBut only a written retraction by the Justice Department setting the record straight regarding my performance would settle the issue for me,\u201d Iglesias wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/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-1447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447","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=1447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}