Dangerous New Turn in Justice Department Investigation

Last week brought a dangerous new turn to the on-going United States Attorney and Justice Department disaster. Based on the evidence, career, non-partisan investigators recommended the appointing of a special prosecutor to determine whether criminal laws were violated in my ouster and that of my colleagues. No longer just a civil matter to blithely ignore, this ominous development could result in current and high level officials being indicted for crimes. I suspect the special counsel will "follow the emails" in the way that "follow the money" brought down Nixon's men during Watergate.

The Justice Department's independent watchdog offices, the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility, finished the definitive investigation about the firings, stating that U.S. Attorneys may not be removed for an "illegal or improper reason." I was not disappointed or surprised by the findings contained in its blistering report which I cooperated with fully. Every reason given for my ouster was examined and rejected as "disingenuous after-the-fact rationalizations" by former Justice Department personnel, thus sounding the death knell to my alleged "performance-related" problems. More importantly, the firings of my colleagues and me "severely damaged the credibility of the Department and raised doubts about the integrity of Department prosecutive decisions" according to the investigation. Several Republican officials took key roles damaging America's premier crime fighting organization.

The 392-page report described a "fundamentally flawed" process of termination, one in which politics were allowed to overrule the historic independence of U.S. Attorneys. Pat Rogers, the New Mexico Republican committeeman, despite his incessant drone of criticism, curiously refused to cooperate with the Justice Department investigators, as did Senator Pete Domenici, his chief of staff Steve Bell, former White House Advisor Karl Rove, former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, and former DoJ official Monica Goodling. The Attorney General, Michael Mukasey called it straight, the removals were "haphazard, arbitrary and unprofessional". He further stated the reputations of the terminated US Attorneys were "unfairly tainted by the removals and their aftermath."

The local New Mexico GOP power brokers, on the other hand, did not care about the evidence, all they cared about was partisan wins, by any and all means. Rogers, former Republican Committeeman Mickey Barnett and New Mexico Republican Chairman Allen Weh among others,will never get it. Once in office, United States Attorneys, like federal judges, are required to stay out of politics. We were not like other political appointees since we are the only presidential appointees that have the power to take away a citizen's life, liberty, property and reputation. This is an awesome responsibility and must be administered fairly and without consideration of partisan gain.

Independence is not just a town in Missouri, it is the lifeblood of a prosecutor who must base his or her decisions solely on the law and evidence. Yet, Rogers, Weh, and Barnett with zero experience as prosecutors thought they knew best. Based on rumor and innuendo, they and others tried to improperly influence me to file cases that were non-provable or not ready to indict. This type of reprehensible practice may be acceptable in corrupt third world countries but it has no place in the United States where we venerate the rule of law and the Constitution.

The DoJ investigation was unsparing in its harsh criticism of our removals. The report summarized the issue succinctly, "If a U.S. Attorney must maintain the confidence of home-state political officials to avoid removal, regardless of the merits of the U.S. Attorney's prosecutorial decisions, respect for the Department of Justice's independence and integrity will be severely damaged and every U.S. Attorneys' prosecutorial decisions will be suspect. The longstanding tradition of integrity and independent judgments by Department prosecutors will be undermined, and confidence that the Department of Justice decides who to prosecute based solely on the evidence and the law, without regard to political factors, will disappear." This is the touchstone of our criminal justice system, without which we are slouching towards institutional corruption.

I pledge my full cooperation with Special Counsel Nora Dannehey, a career federal prosecutor. One thing is for certain; I will not second guess, criticize or attempt to improperly influence her in the way that Republican officials attempted to do to me. I've learned many lessons these past eighteen months -- prosecutorial independence is not a talking point and seeking justice can never be viewed as a political "wedge" issue.

David C. Iglesias was the United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico between 2001 and 2007. His is the author of the book, "In Justice: Inside the Scandal that Rocked the Bush Administration."

Comments

[dadw5boys]

The Attorney General can face charges for not doing his job after Jan 12 th, 2009 .

No Bush to Pardon him .

[mcostello]

Here is a Republican with integrity. No wonder the Bush admin. threw him to the dogs.
Mr. Inlgesias would be a great pick for Attorney General.

[Jules1]

Things will change in January.

[jalaroc]

Follow the emails? What emails? The WH has probably long since destroyed any incriminating emails and probably documents as well. I honestly don't see anything coming of this investigation because of the unassailable brick wall that will be erected in its path. Truth, justice, and our accountability have all been trumped by politics and partisanship. The damage this administration has caused to our mechanisms of government will probably never be undone as precedence is a powerful force.

[nancytheragingliberal]

Atty. David C. Iglesias. Thank you for this interesting update, which appears to have been swept under the rug and thank you for your superior service to the American people. I want to see justice prevail in this case, and your honor restored to a high ranking. I am outraged that this event happened in my U.S.A. Not to mention that W. said would "restore honor and integrity to my WH" and he was "a compassionate conservative." Lies, pure and simple. That Monica Goodling made my blood boil: "I pledge my allegiance to George W. Bush." She was a dangerous, unqualified buffoon in the first degree, and I was paying for that....thing? I hope to see many more updates from you, in the future.

[bobh]

I would like to see President Obama give you your job back.

[Jeep]

I have one piece of advice, sir. Never trust a republican.

[wolfgangmo]

Statistically that is good advice, but statistics do break down on a personal level.

I know of one good republican politician that I have worked with. Not all of them are batshit crazy political flacks for sale to any bidder. Just most of them. Do not give up hope. The rupublican party used to be almost sane. [although this was almost half a century ago].

[JBS]

I pretty much agree with you there, but it creates an interesting dilemma ... Iglesias is himself a republican.

So, do you not trust him saying he was unlawfully fired or not trust the white house saying he was?

[GodBlessAmerica]

Jeep spoke a little recklessly to something bigger -- a Republican political "civil war" on the horizon. Social conservatives for whom anti-homosexual and pro-life positions (and some creationism, I suppose) are key, versus the military-above-all hawks, versus the pro-business and anti-tax crowd.

I have some good friends who are Republicans. Wonderful people. Jeep, don't be hatin' or distrustful of someone JUST because they decided to wear the Republican label. We as Americans can be better than that :)

[dubster]

Did you guys no that the movie A FEW GOOD MEN was based upon Iglesias (Tom Cruise played his part)! Iglesies thanks for having some backbone and fighting against what is wrong and unpopular. You're an inspiration to many young Hispanic men seeking excellence and success in their lives. I just hope you could cross over to the Democratic party and join us in fighting Republican shenanigans.

[politicky]

And when does our girl Carol Lam get some justice? Don't tell me it had nothing to do with Dukie Cunningscam, we here in San Diego know better.

[GodBlessAmerica]

Her firing is actually what started the whole domino effect -- she was let go, and Sen Feinstein was surprised she wasn't really consulted on a new US Atty -- and then learned about a confirmation-bypass in the Patriot Act -- which led to an analysis of why she left -- and did it happen to anyone else -- which led to Gonzales' aide admitting (under immunity) that she made decisions for the AG using politics -- which led to the discovery of the administration using RNC accounts to bypass the Presidential Records Act and the Freedom of Information Act ....

This whole things stinks to high heaven. The Dept of Justice was corrupted, perhaps as much as could be possible.

[Carolab]

The Justice Department's independent watchdog offices, the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility, finished the definitive investigation about the firings, stating that U.S. Attorneys may not be removed for an "illegal or improper reason."

This is an important point. Note that in Palin's firing Monegan, she left herself open to a civil lawsuit. Only eleven U.S. states have recognized a breach of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing as an exception to at-will employment. One of these states is Alaska. The bottom line is that courts have determined there must be "just cause" in terminating the employee and there must be an absence of malice in so-doing.

If people in this country accept or are DUPED into accepting that law enforcement officials, especially those at the top, such as Walter Monegan and David Iglesias, can be fired for no real reason we have a BIG problem. The "media" keeps conveniently ignoring this fact in talking about Palin's firing of Monegan and in the firing of David Iglesias and the other U.S. Attorneys.

[felinetta]

We need him to defend ACORN NOW!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!

[mcostello]

It would be easier to defend acorn is they didn't do the dirt

[dadw5boys]

KEEP THE REPUBLICANS GROM VOLUNTEERING WITH ACRON !!!!!

ALL THEY DO IS CAUSE TROUBLE !!!!!!!!

THE RNC PAYS THEM TO DO IT !!!!!!!!

[TheFriendlyAtheist]

Throw every one of these rotten bastards in jail. After a fair trial of course.

[glitz]

It is truly a shame that "the medal of freedom" is only given to incompetence by this administra­tion...oth­erwise you would deserve it. For the legal arm of the Country, The Justice Department, to testify that they didn't know the Constitution when applied to hiring and firing practices is amazing!! Hopefully in the future just being a graduate of Liberty college, a fundamentalist, and a Republican will not be the only qualifications for those jobs in the DOJ. UhOh...."What does the office of Vice President do?".....

[certainot]

david, it sounds like the NM GOP was tying to score PR points before the 2006 elections by getting you to push exaggerated voter fraud and dem corruption. the most critical part of their NM PR machine is the AM radio station 770KKOB and they were pushing it anyway- but maybe it wasn't as big as it could be in the rest of the media. talk radio is/was rove's most important media tool. maybe there was an evidence trail of insider leaks of your investigation to the radio station because they seemed to be right on it, especially when it came to exaggerating Dem Party corruption to sabotage Patricia Madrid's bid to beat Heather Wilson.

[Carolab]

No what they were trying to do was to justify getting voter ID laws passed in every state. That and make sure that Rove had enablers at the U.S. Attorney level to cage (illegally disenfranchise) voters from the rolls. Greg Palast at www.gregpalast.com is your source for this.

[Dredd]

While I agree that Mr. Iglesias would be welcome in any American political party, perhaps he should stay in the republican party.

They need a few good men ... or lots of good men ... in that party at this time.

He is a good example of the good ideology in American jurisprudence.