page_title: Dismissed U.S. attorneys summary
section_title: David Iglesias
hierarchical_section_title: Dismissed U.S. attorneys summary / David Iglesias
caption_attribution_description: Official Justice Department photo
context_page_description: S. attorneys summarizes the circumstances surrounding a number of U.S. attorneys dismissed from office in the United States Department of Justice in 2006. Eight were dismissed In December 2006, and others may have been forced out of office under similar circumstances in 2005 and 2006. The manner of the firings, the congressional response to them, and the explanations offered by Bush administration officials are aspects of a political controversy starting in the first quarter of 2007. As of May 2007 a clear explanation of why the attorneys were dismissed had not been put forward by the Bush administration or the Department of Justice leadership. There are in total 93 U.S. attorneys that serve 94 Federal district courts.
context_section_description: Allen Weh, chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party, said he complained in 2005 about then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to a White House aide for Karl Rove, asking that Iglesias be removed. Then in 2006 Rove personally told Weh "He's gone." Weh was dissatisfied with Iglesias due in part to his failure to indict Democrats in a voter fraud investigation. Weh followed up with, "There's nothing we've done that's wrong." In March 2007, the White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said Rove "wasn't involved in who was going to be fired or hired." 
  However, one of the stated reasons for Iglesias' dismissal, by Administration officials, was dissatisfaction in his prosecution of voter-fraud cases.  Nevertheless, Iglesias "had been heralded for his expertise in that area by the Justice Department, which twice selected him to train other federal prosecutors to pursue election crimes" and was "one of two chief federal prosecutors invited to teach at a 'voting integrity symposium' in October 2005... sponsored by Justice's public integrity and civil rights sections."
  In February 2007 Iglesias publicly alleged that "two lawmakers called him about a well-known criminal investigation involving a Democratic legislator" and that "the lawmakers who called him seemed focused on whether charges would be filed before the November elections. 
  He said the calls made him feel 'pressured to hurry the subsequent cases and prosecutions.'" 
  (U.S. Attorneys in Arizona, Nevada and California were also conducting corruption probes involving Republicans at the time of their dismissals.) 
  According to and later confirmed prior to the 2006 midterm election, Heather Wilson and Pete Domenici called and "pressured" Iglesias "to speed up indictments in a federal corruption investigation that involved at least one former Democratic state senator." When Iglesias told Domenici that an indictment wouldn't be handed down until at least December, Iglesias said "the line went dead," and he was fired one week later by the Bush Administration. After initially denying the call, Domenici admitted making it in March 2007. According to The Washington Post, "A communication by a senator or House member with a federal prosecutor regarding an ongoing criminal investigation is a violation of ethics rules." 
  Domenici admitted calling Iglesias despite the initial denial, but Domenici said he never used the word "November" when he called Iglesias about an ongoing Albuquerque courthouse corruption case. 
  Domenici has denied trying to influence Iglesias, and has hired lawyer K. Lee Blalack II to represent him. 
  According to the Justice Department, Domenici called the Department and demanded Iglesias be replaced on four occasions. 
  On the day that Iglesias was fired, Harriet Miers' deputy William Kelley wrote that Domenici's chief of staff "is happy as a clam" about Iglesias and a week later Sampson wrote that "Domenici is going to send over names tomorrow (not even waiting for Iglesias's body to cool)."
  Rep. Heather Wilson also called and "pressured New Mexico U.S. attorney David Iglesias to speed up indictments in a federal corruption investigation that involved at least one former Democratic state senator.  Wilson was curt after Iglesias was non-responsive to her questions about whether an indictment would be unsealed."  Iglesias was fired one week afterward by the Bush Administration.  Ex-Governor David Cargo (R-NM) accused Wilson of "essentially taking the Fifth [Amendment]" defense thus far.
  DOJ also received complaints from "two prominent Republican attorneys, Mickey Barnett and Patrick J. Rogers, [who] met last June with Gonzales's senior counsel, Monica Goodling, to complain that Iglesias was inattentive to voter fraud. Goodling met with them after Kyle Sampson sent her an email saying, "It is sensitive -- perhaps you should do it."
  House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., issued subpoenas on March 1 requiring Iglesias, among other recently ousted U.S. attorneys, to testify before Congress about their firings. 
  Then on March 21, Iglesias wrote an opinion pi
caption: David Iglesias
exif: {}