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

[PKSSK]

You, Nr Iglesias, are a man of geat character and integrity and remind us all of what we have lost and what has been destroyed and removed from our justice system over these past eight years. I hope you, once again, can become part of our justice system in an Obama administration, as we are in great need of people like you who are trully one of this countries honest hero's. Thank you for keeping up the good fight for all of us to take back our country from the criminals who defy and ignore the law and constitution to get their way and cause great destrution to our country and its citizens. Unless people pay the price for their destruction of lives, by ignoring the justice system, we will never really have a constitution or rule of law that protects us all, as Americans. It is time we demonstrate that no person is above the law, especially those in this administration.

[raptor]

Several times in the past I pointed out Allen Weh and wondered out loud why he was not being looked at more closely, especially when the White House was stonewalling Congress over Gonzalez.

[maribelle1963]

Mr. Iglesias, thank you for your courage, this must be harder than most of us can imagine. You might present one of the few options from bringing this gang of theives to justice.

You and your colleagues are in my prayers. Blessed be.

[oncethere]

This is important because it is similar to what Sarah Palin is being investigated for. Republicans have a long history of this kind of cronyism and politicization of the hiring/firing process. Their disdain of competence and intelligence, in favor of blind loyalty, has just about destroyed this country.

This kind of thing makes me wonder how many jobs I didn't get or was forced out of because Republican-types were in positions of power and were more likely to favor little young republicans.

[research]

Keep fighting.

[Snow97]

Acts of courage may not always grab headlines or announce themselves with glitter. "Courage," according to Mary Anne Radmacher, "doesn't always roar."

But sometimes, acts of courage resonate, just the same. As a people who claim to value due process, equal protection under the law, and the principle of innocence until proven guilty, we are indebted to David Iglesias and his fellow former U.S. attorneys for holding to those standards -- and for speaking Truth to Power.

Mr. Iglesias, for what it's worth, you have my thanks.

[PaHairO]

David, THANK YOU.

So many dedicated, awesome civil servants out there - across many agencies ... and all the goddam Bushies wanted to do was move 'em all out.

Let's hope for an eager prosecution of these criminals, conducted with actual balls, counting on your help among others. I want to see Congressional Hearings ASAP. This is beyond an election or politics, as you correctly note. What happened at DOJ is cancer in vital organs, and must be addressed immediately.

[disgusted48]

Thank goodness you didn't leave quietly. It takes alot of energy to do what you are doing, but Americans that love the Constitution and value the rule of law are forever grateful for your efforts.

[cariintexas]

Mr. Iglesias, Thank you for this insight. Wasn't Rep. Heather Wilson of NM involved in this as well? I read a post { on huffpost} a few weeks ago that mentioned her as being involved.

[LanguagePolice]

Yes, she was. Senator Domenici's involvement was higher-profile, and I understand he won't run for re-election. But if I recall correctly, what they did is against the law.

[Bluedog12]

David you are an American hero true to your oath and the Constitution.

[JRGris]

Getting this investigation done along with the Plame case should be a high priority for our next government. We need to roll back what has occurred so we can get back on the track of moving our society toward equal justice for all and accountability for our public officials. The congress must step up to the responsibility of protecting our Constitution which has been hijacked by the right wing extremists. Thanks to David Iglesias and Valerie Plame for continuing to fight the corruption.

[DASChicago]

Attorney Iglesias;

Thank you very much for your article. I am so Proud of You. What I'm most grateful for today is that this information is communicated by you.
I have made every attempt at following these/your case(s).
I have studied Criminal Justice (having the desire to become a Criminologist) but did not complete the B.S. degree program because I completely lost confidence in the Department of Justice and the entire Bush Administration . Beginning in 2005, with the flurry of resignations and especially the 2005 Reauthorization of the Patriot Act 1974, war on Drugs, the war on Terror, the war on Civil Rights, the war on the Constitution et al became disheartening. As I began to read legislation and other accessible publications and information provided to us as students, I developed, a sense of hysteria that I could no longer tolerate.
My strong well and aspirations to make a difference in society was contaminated with my discoveries and research specifically the immoralites of this Administration.

I had began to feel a depth sense of the American People being sacraficed or held captive in fear.

Your article today helps to restore hope and ambition that there is are glimmers of hope for our democracy. I often follow Johnathan Turley, Professor of Law at George Washington.

I love you, keep up the good fight!

[cafemocha]

Impeachment will stop the coming Pardon Parade. For the purpose of giving America the opportunity to bring Bush administration criminals to justice, CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS AND INSTRUCT THEM TO PLEASE PUT THE FOLLOWING PLAN IN MOTION ON NOVEMBER FIFTH: PUT THE IMPEACHMENT OF BUSH AND CHENEY ONTO THE FLOOR OF THE HOUSE. MAINTAIN AND CONDUCT THE IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS THROUGH JANUARY 20TH. This should - based upon common interpretation of the Constitution - prevent Bush/Cheney from issuing pardons to Bush administration officials who may have violated laws during the last 8 years. Waiting until the day after the election keeps it off the radar of the campaign process. Starting January 20th with hopefully an Obama administration in power, America can pursue justice against those criminals who served the Bush administration.

[woodchips]

Why not just hold off on prosecuting these slimeballs until a new administration is in office. He can't pardon them before they get convicted.

[got2Bkidding]

Sure he can. Ford-Nixon.

[naschkatze]

Your going to get a rude awakening in December, woodchips.

[blueboomerintx]

Mr. Iglesias:

Along with so many others, I sincerely admire your courage in speaking out. I hope you and your colleagues will find justice and regain your positions.

And I hope that your expectation that it's possible to "follow the emails" will bear fruit.

Alas, cynic that I am after the past 8 years, I fully expect that the emails, the hard drives on which they were composed, the computers in which the hard drives were installed, the backup files, and all other traces of the "paper trail" have disappeared a long, long time ago. The responsible parties will evade prosecution.

In the end, as with every other travesty of justice perpetrated by the Bush/Cheney administration, there will be no accountability, no justice, and no truth.

I hope that you are correct and that I am mistaken.

[antworks]

I have worked as a mainframe computer operator. These "missing backup tapes" are NOT missing! They are "somewhere" and no one in the Justice Department nor the Whitehouse are owning up to it! That is, they won't specifically say who has possession of such backup tapes. Production batch processing is the "clean up" process done on any computer system (be it a mainframe setup, a Local Area Network or a Wide Area Network configuration!), at the end of each business day. Standard procedure is that a "fire safe" location is used to store ALL backup tapes. Typically, two backup tapes are made. One is a "partial backup" tape. The other is a "Full backup tape". If an operator didn't make backup's you'd be fired, quickly. Why? Because in the case of a catastrophic occurence (e.g., Fire, Natural disaster, or a "crash" of the entire computer network - certainly a crash of the mainframe's hard drive storage system, the only way to restart the entire computer network is by reloading these "same backup tapes". It does not matter if the reload is with the "partial backup" or "full backup" tapes. The computer network will still function normally. [i.e., until a full scheduled maintenance can be performed on the damaged computer network]. These back up tapes have not been destroyed. They have been placed in "safe keeping". Most likely at the National Security Agency. And, the Justice Department is well aware of it (I would bet you).

[GodBlessAmerica]

Oh dear, Mr. Iglesias, you missed how your firing interacts with another scandal -- this administration was using RNC accounts for political discussions and decision making, which likely would have included your termination, and a lot of those email messages have been determined to be lost forever, in apparent violation of the Presidential Records Act. Problem is, nobody seems to know the repercussions of a violation of that act. Do you? (You're in a better place to know as a former federal attorney. It's an honest question.)

About this scandal, something that has always bothered me is that nobody was able to pin down exactly WHO fired these folks. I think Congress needs to properly reassert that political appointee firings can only happen by a) the president, b) the department head, eg Attorney General, or c) a presidenti­ally-desig­nated hachetman running an internal query. Simply put, it's always been unclear to me if these folks were fired by anyone who actually had the juice to do so -- and if so, do they still have their jobs, at least on paper?

It's very curious why Monica Goodling didn't cooperate -- I thought that her immunity deal required her to cooperate with anybody, not just C-ongress.