Top 10 Stories of 2007: Speaking Out
By: 12/19/2007
New Mexico took center stage in DOJ scandal.
David Iglesias considered going quietly into the night. Ultimately, the former US attorney's decision to speak out about the events that led to his dismissal by the Department of Justice sparked a national story that continues to unfold in the final days of 2007.***image1***
Iglesias was one of seven US attorneys fired by the DOJ in December 2006 (an eighth had been fired previously).
Iglesias and the others considered quietly resigning. But after former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty testified in early February that the fired lawyers had had "performance issues," Iglesias and his colleagues decided to speak out and defend their records. As Iglesias, a loyal Republican, noted in an interview last spring [SFR Talk, June 27: "Breaking Ranks"], "loyalty has its limits."
It quickly became clear the firings were politically motivated. Iglesias' case became of particular interest when he revealed that he'd received phone calls from both US Sen. Pete Domenici, R-NM, and US Rep. Heather Wilson, R-NM, inquiring about his progress on indictments against high-profile Democrats in a courthouse scandal [Outtakes, March 14: "Notes on a Scandal"].
Iglesias' failure to deliver on voter-fraud indictments desired by the GOP also appeared to have contributed to his downfall.
Jason Leopold, a senior editor and reporter for the online magazine truthout.org, was a leading journalist unveiling the machinations that led to "attorneygate."
"It was around early January that it just started to snowball," Leopold says. "New Mexico was the most egregious of all. With the firing of David Iglesias, there just seemed to be an overwhelming amount of evidence that the firing did have to do with politics. As soon as I heard, in February, that Karl Rove had been speaking to the Justice Department a year earlier about the fact that Iglesias wasn't pursuing voter-fraud cases, my gut just told me, 'Wow.'"
Soon, high-ranking officials at the DOJ began testifying before Congress and, ultimately, resigning. Finally, in August, even Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stepped down; he has since hit the lecture circuit.
Iglesias also spent much of the last year speaking publicly, and began work in October as an executive advisor for the international corporation Booz Allen Hamilton. He is finishing a book on his experiences due out in spring 2008.
***image3***"It's been an evolutionary process for me," Iglesias tells SFR. "Going from a period of complete shock and humiliation and anger to a point of seeing that the administration was going to take a severe hit."
That hit may not be over. Iglesias, Leopold and others believe an inspector general report could be released before the end of the year. The scuttlebutt is it will be highly critical of the Bush administration.
As for the political ramifications, both Iglesias and Leopold believe Domenici's decision to not seek re-election was influenced by the DOJ situation.
"I don't doubt that he has this brain disease," Iglesias says. "But my belief is had he not been embroiled in the scandal that the health issue would not have come to the forefront and he would have run."
As for Wilson, Iglesias says he was "astounded" when Wilson reiterated, during her announcement of her Senate run, that her call to Iglesias was "appropriate."
Indeed, Domenici's and Wilson's calls to Iglesias go the heart of the story, according to University of New Mexico political science professor Lonna Atkeson. She says while tension between politics and justice has plenty of historical precedence, "there is a problem with Congress telling the executive branch what they should be doing. That is not allowed. That's separation of powers."***image2***
As for Iglesias, he, like others, will wait to see if Wilson's role will have repercussions at the polls in November 2008. But what he's really waiting for is what motivated him to speak out in the first place: vindication.
"I'm going to be asking [recently appointed Attorney General Michael Mukasey] in writing for a written retraction that my forced resignation had nothing to do with performance…if he ignores me or decides not to, I'll send the same letter to the next AG. I'm at about 98 percent of vindication and I'm not going to rest until I get my final 1 percent."
David Iglesias considered going quietly into the night. Ultimately, the former US attorney's decision to speak out about the events that led to his dismissal by the Department of Justice sparked a national story that continues to unfold in the final days of 2007.***image1***
Iglesias was one of seven US attorneys fired by the DOJ in December 2006 (an eighth had been fired previously).
Iglesias and the others considered quietly resigning. But after former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty testified in early February that the fired lawyers had had "performance issues," Iglesias and his colleagues decided to speak out and defend their records. As Iglesias, a loyal Republican, noted in an interview last spring [SFR Talk, June 27: "Breaking Ranks"], "loyalty has its limits."
It quickly became clear the firings were politically motivated. Iglesias' case became of particular interest when he revealed that he'd received phone calls from both US Sen. Pete Domenici, R-NM, and US Rep. Heather Wilson, R-NM, inquiring about his progress on indictments against high-profile Democrats in a courthouse scandal [Outtakes, March 14: "Notes on a Scandal"].
Iglesias' failure to deliver on voter-fraud indictments desired by the GOP also appeared to have contributed to his downfall.
Jason Leopold, a senior editor and reporter for the online magazine truthout.org, was a leading journalist unveiling the machinations that led to "attorneygate."
"It was around early January that it just started to snowball," Leopold says. "New Mexico was the most egregious of all. With the firing of David Iglesias, there just seemed to be an overwhelming amount of evidence that the firing did have to do with politics. As soon as I heard, in February, that Karl Rove had been speaking to the Justice Department a year earlier about the fact that Iglesias wasn't pursuing voter-fraud cases, my gut just told me, 'Wow.'"
Soon, high-ranking officials at the DOJ began testifying before Congress and, ultimately, resigning. Finally, in August, even Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stepped down; he has since hit the lecture circuit.
Iglesias also spent much of the last year speaking publicly, and began work in October as an executive advisor for the international corporation Booz Allen Hamilton. He is finishing a book on his experiences due out in spring 2008.
***image3***"It's been an evolutionary process for me," Iglesias tells SFR. "Going from a period of complete shock and humiliation and anger to a point of seeing that the administration was going to take a severe hit."
That hit may not be over. Iglesias, Leopold and others believe an inspector general report could be released before the end of the year. The scuttlebutt is it will be highly critical of the Bush administration.
As for the political ramifications, both Iglesias and Leopold believe Domenici's decision to not seek re-election was influenced by the DOJ situation.
"I don't doubt that he has this brain disease," Iglesias says. "But my belief is had he not been embroiled in the scandal that the health issue would not have come to the forefront and he would have run."
As for Wilson, Iglesias says he was "astounded" when Wilson reiterated, during her announcement of her Senate run, that her call to Iglesias was "appropriate."
Indeed, Domenici's and Wilson's calls to Iglesias go the heart of the story, according to University of New Mexico political science professor Lonna Atkeson. She says while tension between politics and justice has plenty of historical precedence, "there is a problem with Congress telling the executive branch what they should be doing. That is not allowed. That's separation of powers."***image2***
As for Iglesias, he, like others, will wait to see if Wilson's role will have repercussions at the polls in November 2008. But what he's really waiting for is what motivated him to speak out in the first place: vindication.
"I'm going to be asking [recently appointed Attorney General Michael Mukasey] in writing for a written retraction that my forced resignation had nothing to do with performance…if he ignores me or decides not to, I'll send the same letter to the next AG. I'm at about 98 percent of vindication and I'm not going to rest until I get my final 1 percent."
