David C. Iglesias (in photo), the former U.S. attorney from New Mexico, wrote a commentary in the New York Times explaining about how politics factored into the Justice Department decision to fire him — and why it shouldn’t have.
Even though U.S. attorneys are appointed through a political process, he wrote, they are supposed to be insulated from politics, and politics are supposed to play no role during their tenure. "Little did I know that I could be fired for not being political," he wrote.
He said that Rep. Heather Wilson and Sen. Pete Domenici, Republicans from New Mexico, called him about a corruption case involving local Democrats. He said he was evasive with Wilson, because attorneys are prohibited from talking about indictments, and he told Domenici that he didn’t think he would file charges before the November election.
"A few weeks after those phone calls," he wrote, "my name was added to a list of United States attorneys who would be asked to resign — even though I had excellent office evaluations, the biggest political corruption prosecutions in New Mexico history, a record number of overall prosecutions and a 95 percent conviction rate."
Meanwhile, both the Senate and House Judiciary committees have now authorized the issuing of subpoenas to summon Karl Rove and other officials to testify under oath about the dismissals.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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