{"id":4809,"date":"2009-08-13T15:08:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-13T21:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/08\/roves-testimony-contradicts-wilsons-claim\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T15:22:41","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T21:22:41","slug":"roves-testimony-contradicts-wilsons-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/08\/roves-testimony-contradicts-wilsons-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Rove’s testimony contradicts Wilson’s claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Former White House aide says Wilson complained about \u2018the timing of the courthouse construction indictment\u2019 before the election; Wilson says that\u2019s not true<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Former White House aide Karl Rove<\/a> told a House Judiciary Committee investigator that former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a> raised concerns with him about \u201cthe timing of the courthouse construction indictment\u201d before the 2006 election.<\/p>\n

Wilson says that\u2019s not true.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The question of whether Wilson was complaining about the timing of indictments in the metro court case before the 2006 election is important because former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias<\/a> alleges that Wilson and former Sen. Pete Domenici<\/a> pressured him to speed indictments in the case involving a high-ranking Democrat in an attempt to help Wilson win re-election in 2006.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a charge both former members of Congress deny, but it\u2019s now under investigation by a special prosecutor because Iglesias is one of several U.S. attorneys who were fired days after the election.<\/p>\n

The contradiction between the Rove and Wilson statements is examined today by The Politico<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cRove says Wilson pushed the White House to fire New Mexico\u2019s then-U.S. attorney, David Iglesias, before the Nov. 2006 election because he wasn\u2019t moving fast enough on a corruption case involving New Mexico Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cWilson said she did no such thing, insisting that she only spoke to Rove once about Iglesias, and that was following the 2006 election at a White House breakfast.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ex-lawmaker also said she never mentioned a New Mexico courthouse corruption investigation in her discussion with Rove, a statement that is at odds with the testimony Rove provided to the House Judiciary Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Iglesias says metro court case \u2018was not ready\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In his testimony (click here<\/a> and scroll to Page 109), Rove said Wilson expressed concern to him \u201cthat Iglesias had a case that ripened and that, rather than filing it when it was ready, he was making a politically charged decision to not move the indictment until after the election, which was again, 9 months, 10 months, 12 months, 11 months after — 14 months after it supposedly ripened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iglesias told me earlier this week that the metro court case \u201cwas not ready\u201d before the 2006 election, \u201cbut even had it been ready I wouldn\u2019t have filed it because (Department of Justice) policy precludes indictments that can be used for political purposes during election season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rove\u2019s lawyer, Robert Luskin, told The Politico that Rove\u2019s \u201cbest recollection is that he heard from Wilson before the \u201806 election, during the same time period that Domenici and (Domenici\u2019s former chief of staff) Steve Bell were also complaining about Iglesias\u2019 holding of the courthouse case.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Rove is apparently also alleging that Domenici and Bell were complaining about the timing of the courthouse case before the election.<\/p>\n

Wilson told The Politico that she \u201cnever talked to Mr. Rove about the timing of courthouse cases at any time and had no other communications with him about Mr. Iglesias at any time.\u201d She insisted, according to the article, that the only time she spoke to Rove about Iglesias was at a Nov. 15, 2006, breakfast at the White House.<\/p>\n

Regardless, there\u2019s a criminal investigation into Iglesias\u2019 firing that some analysts have said could lead to obstruction of justice charges against Wilson, Domenici, Rove and others. Even if that doesn\u2019t happen, Rove\u2019s testimony could be damaging for Wilson, who has said she may run for governor<\/a> next year.<\/p>\n

Jennings also disputes part of Rove\u2019s testimony<\/span><\/p>\n

But what if Rove\u2019s testimony isn\u2019t accurate? Wilson isn\u2019t the only one disputing aspects of Rove\u2019s testimony. In an article published yesterday in the Louisville Courier-Journal<\/a>, a man who was one of Rove\u2019s top aides, Scott Jennings<\/a>, took issue with Rove\u2019s assertion that Jennings was a driving force behind the firing of Iglesias.<\/p>\n

From the article:<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\u201cRove also said the ouster of Iglesias was \u2018being provoked by Jennings\u2019 and that the Kentuckian was \u2018freelancing\u2019 in pushing for the prosecutor\u2019s removal.<\/p>\n

\u201cJenning\u2019s Washington attorney, Mark Paoletta, said Wednesday that \u2018a fair review of the records will show that Scott Jennings\u2019 communications concerning the removal of U.S. attorneys were in reaction to complaints he received and passed along, consistent with his responsibilities in the Office of Political Affairs.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018\u2026The suggestion that Scott may have been \u2018freelancing\u2019 to remove particular U.S. attorneys, or did not keep his superiors adequately informed about the nature of the complaints, is pure fantasy,\u2019 Paoletta said.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

You may recall that Jennings is the White House staffer whose Oct. 15, 2006 e-mail<\/a> questioned why Iglesias was being \u201cshy about doing his job on (Patricia) Madrid,\u201d Wilson\u2019s 2006 opponent. Wilson claims the e-mail chain that includes Jennings\u2019 e-mail, which she started, was about an FBI inquiry into Madrid<\/a>, not the 2006 election contest between her and Madrid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former White House aide says Wilson complained about \u2018the timing of the courthouse construction indictment\u2019 before the election; Wilson says that\u2019s not true Former White House aide Karl Rove told a House Judiciary Committee investigator that former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson raised concerns with him about \u201cthe timing of the courthouse construction indictment\u201d before the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809","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=4809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}