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Group seeks probe of Domenici's call to Iglesias
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Low-profile during his five years as New Mexico's U.S. attorney, David Iglesias now finds himself at the center a growing national controversy.
Although no member of the New Mexico delegation sits on the two congressional committees that will interview Iglesias and other dismissed U.S. attorneys Tuesday, Republicans are expected to ask tough questions about Iglesias' tenure.
Democrats say they believe Iglesias and other federal prosecutors were political victims, and want to know more.
Iglesias is scheduled to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing that begins at 8 a.m. New Mexico time. The cable news channel C-SPAN may televise the hearing, but the channel's Tuesday schedule will not be finalized until late this afternoon, a spokesman said.
Iglesias will testify before a House Judiciary subcommittee beginning at noon MST. C-SPAN coverage is possible, but not confirmed as of early today, a C-SPAN spokesman said.
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A Washington, D.C., group today called for a congressional investigation into whether Sen. Pete Domenici violated Senate ethics rules by contacting then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias about an ongoing corruption case.
But about the same time Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said the call to Iglesias looked like political pressure, the Justice Department released information that Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican, had long-held concerns about Iglesias' performance, starting more than a year earlier.
The two announcements help illustrate the debate expected Tuesday as two congressional panels take up the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, including Iglesias: Were the dismissals unwarranted political pressure, or simply the end result of poor performance?
After Iglesias announced last week he had received calls from two members of Congress before the Nov. 7 election pressing him about the pace of corruption investigations involving New Mexico Democrats, Domenici has denied any involvement.
"I have no idea what he's talking about," the senior senator said.
On Sunday, Domenici admitted he had called Iglesias, but denied putting pressure on the U.S. attorney.
The citizen group that filed the complaint points to a Senate ethics rule that say senators "should refrain from intervening" in an ongoing case "until the matter has reached a resolution in the courts."
The manual also indicates that senators are not to communicate with an agency regarding ongoing enforcement or investigative matters, according to CREW.
Apparently based on Iglesias' statements to the press, CREW's complaint alleges Domenici pressured Iglesias to act quickly on the pending corruption investigation.
And in initially denying Iglesias' allegation, Domenici may have violated Senate rules by engaging in "improper conduct which may reflect upon the Senate," the group said in a statement.
In the meantime, the Justice Department said today that Domenici called Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his deputy four times - starting in September 2005 - to question whether Iglesias was "up to the job."
In a written statement this weekend, Domenici apologized for his October phone call to Iglesias, then said he had been concerned for several years about the slow pace of prosecutions.
"New Mexico needed a new U.S. attorney," Domenici concluded.
Iglesias has said he was fired for resisting pressure to rush a corruption probe reportedly focused on Democrats.
Similar claims have been made about seven other U.S. attorneys, all Republicans, fired in recent months. Democrats have called it an unprecedented political purge of federal prosecutors.
Indeed, the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, called by Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, is titled, "Preserving Prosecutorial Independence: Is the Department of Justice politicizing the hiring and firing of U.S. attorneys?"
"I would say this statement sets the stage for the hearings," University of New Mexico political science professor Lonna Atkeson said. "I'm sure you'll see the Republicans try to establish these issues."
Ethics rules permit members of Congress to request a status report on a case from federal agents if they're doing so at the behest of constituents.
In his statement, Domenici seemingly moved to insulate himself from ethics charges, saying he'd received a "growing number of inquiries from constituents" about the courthouse case.
"I asked Mr. Iglesias if he could tell me what was going on in that investigation and give me an idea of what time frame we were looking at," Domenici said. "It was a very brief conversation, which concluded when I was told that the courthouse investigation would be continuing for a lengthy period.
"In retrospect, I regret making that call and I apologize," the senator said.
Domenici, who recommended Iglesias' appointment by the Bush administration in 2001, said his frustration grew "as we tried to get more resources for it, but public accounts indicated an inability within the office to move more quickly on cases."
Iglesias has said the October calls seemed especially interested in whether indictments in the courthouse case would come ahead of the Nov. 7 election.
U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, an Albuquerque Republican, was then locked in a bitterly close race with Attorney General Patricia Madrid, whom Wilson had accused of being soft on corruption.
Iglesias has said he felt "violated" by the calls and believes he was fired because he refused to "play ball" by rushing the indictments.
Iglesias has, however, acknowledged that he failed to report the calls to the Justice Department as required, a decision he said he regrets.
Wilson, who has not responded to several reports naming her as the other person who called Iglesias, did not have any comment Sunday, a spokesman said.
As Democrats continue to refer to the firing of the attorneys in the terms of a nefarious mystery, observers say the new majority in Congress is certain to push an issue that pits powerful Republicans against their own appointees as far as they can.
"Where this goes is going to depend on where the Democrats take it," said Carl Tobias, a constitutional law professor at the University of Richmond. "And that's going to depend largely on what the U.S. attorneys have to tell them - what they give the Democrats to work with."
Rep. Linda Sanchez, the California Democrat who heads the House subcommittee that subpoenaed four of the prosecutors, has said contact like that described by Iglesias might violate ethics laws.
While Domenici's statement may have taken some of the heat off her for the moment, Atkeson said Wilson will still have to address the matter. Iglesias has said he will identify who contacted him when he testifies Tuesday.
"I still think this has the potential to be much worse for (Wilson) because she's the one who stood to gain" from the indictments, Atkeson said. "She was the one up for re-election, not Pete."
