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."
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It is quite simple to adopt the attitude of Crown prosecutors in English law countries. They never win nor lose a case they just present the facts.
Can Bush pardon himself?
No. You cannot pardon yourself.
Sure you can. There's nothing that says you can't, after all.
If you want to see another hysterical video here is one:
andrewsull
Don't let the title throw you, it's all about Obama and the "middle class southerners" who support McCain and supported Hillary in the primary. Uck.
I sure hope that President Obama will reinstate the judges who were fired in this debacle. They didn't deserve what happened to them.
With all the other crimes and scandals bobbing about the surface, I hope this and the Plame case are broken at some point for the good of the nation and validation of a once sacred constituti
WHY SHOULD ANYONE BE SURPRISED. AT ANYTHING THIS ADMINISTRATION DOES. IF THEY ALL TURNED OUT TO BE ALIENS, IT WOULDN'T SURPRISE ME! R.
The Bush pardon list is going to be huge.
Yup. Bigger than his dad's...ou
we should take away that presidential power
I appreciate and admire your courage on speaking out on this issure.
THANK GOD! My confidence in some sense of Justice in this country is slowly starting to come back.
Anyone that politicizes the justice department for their political agenda should be put in jail for at least 20 yrs.
Complete Report Online:
Here's a link to the complete report in our EasySlide format:
http://pub
Loading is very fast. Each page includes a highlighted link which you can copy/paste to cite that page online. Everything on our site is free and permanent.
Don
http://pub
You and my good friend Don Siegleman were screwed royally by the DOJ. You're both in my prayers and I hope you both prevail in the end.
Thanks for your great service to this nation and your courage in speaking out.
When this first hit the airwaves, Arianna called it. It just seemed like another BushCo transgression, but she said it would become a major issue, and it has.
Thank you, David Iglesias, for your service to the ideal of an America where the rule of law is based on a spirit of optimism and fairness for all, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and not in the punitive divisiveness that creeps into the APPLICATION of law whenever it is politicized as it has been recently.
Thank you, too, for keeping this issue from being swept under the media's rug. At this stage, while the special prosecuter does her work, it will not yield the sort of exciting headlines the networks fasten on. And if her investigation becomes a drawn-out process, I fear that, against the backdrop of great economic challenges, her eventual findings may seem a smaller matter than they truly should be. So please don't be TOO silent in the coming months.
And finally, to my great surprise, I thank Attorney Genl. Mukasey for his honest appraisal in this case. However reluctantly he may have given it, at least it is a huge step forward from the stonewalling and professed amnesia of his predecessor in the office, Alberto Gonzales.
W doesn't give a damn what Americans think.
He doesn't give a damn about his so-called legacy.
Bushco is about PROFIT. Period.
He will pardon 'em all before he leaves and to hell with the country.
Mr. Iglesias, will the Bush Administration ever really be held accountable? It seems to me they have gotten away with numerous atrocities I would have never dreamed would be possible. In my opinion, they have trampled over the Constitution of the United States. Then, if we dare to question them or their motives via subpoena, they hide under the guise of executive privilege. Will they ever be brought to justice? Furthermore, can you please explain to me how people get away with ignoring a subpoena as Mr. Rove et. al., Todd Palin and employees of Gov. Palin did? It seems to me the Bush administration is tumbling like a house of cards and once they're gone from D.C. the truth is going to be exposed. What are your thoughts regarding this. Thank you for your article and your book.
What's so dangerous about bringing criminals to justice?
WTF?
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