To say that the first major political scandal of 2007 is picking up steam is an understatement. Yesterday we learned that David Iglesias was fired as a U.S. Attorney after having been pressured by two members of Congress to speed up a probe of Democrats just before the November elections. Last night, we learned which two.
Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico pressured the U.S. attorney in their state to speed up indictments in a federal corruption investigation that involved at least one former Democratic state senator, according to two people familiar with the contacts.
The alleged involvement of the two Republican lawmakers raises questions about possible violations of House of Representatives and Senate ethics rules and could taint the criminal investigation into the award of an $82 million courthouse contract.
The two people with knowledge of the incident said Domenici and Wilson intervened in mid-October, when Wilson was in a competitive re-election campaign that she won by 875 votes out of nearly 211,000 cast.
Apparently, Wilson pushed Iglesias for confidential information, and was annoyed after Iglesias was “non-responsive.” Domenici called about a week and a half later and was “more persistent.” When Iglesias said an indictment wouldn’t be handed down until at least December, “the line went dead.”
Two months later, despite sterling reviews and performance evaluations, Iglesias was fired. What a coincidence.
Talk about reckless. Wilson and Domenici not only appear to have violated congressional ethics, they also put criminal prosecutions in their state in jeopardy by pressuring a federal prosecutor, and almost certainly started a process that led to the firing of that prosecutor. (Who did Wilson and Domenici call at the White House to make that happen?)
Keep in mind, this is but the first of many prosecutor-purge revelations. There will be far more next week.
Democrats issued their first major subpoenas yesterday since taking control of Congress, as a House subcommittee voted to compel testimony from four former U.S. attorneys who were part of a wave of firings by the Justice Department.
The Judiciary subcommittee on commercial and administrative law approved the subpoenas for former prosecutors in Arkansas, New Mexico, Seattle and San Diego — all of whom will be required to appear for testimony at a hearing Tuesday. The Senate Judiciary Committee announced plans for a similar hearing on the same day.
The moves mark the latest escalation in the battle between congressional Democrats and the Justice Department over the controversial dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys, at least five of whom were presiding over public corruption probes when they were fired.
Iglesias will, of course, be one of the prosecutors to appear before the committee, and will talk openly about everything he knows. The other three will be Bud Cummins of Little Rock, John McKay of Seattle, and Carol Lam of San Diego.
Cummins, who was fired to make way for a Karl Rove acolyte, may be of particular interest. Josh Marshall noted an AP piece that reported:
Cummins, U.S. attorney for Arkansas’ Eastern District from 2001-2006, said Thursday that he and other fired attorneys had “politely declined” previous requests from the committee. He said he “didn’t have any desire to stir up the controversy any further.”
“If given the choice, I’d elect to stay home and mind my own business,” Cummins told The Associated Press. “Now that I’m under subpoena, I’ll go and give cooperative, truthful answers.”
When asked if officials in the Justice Department or White House had asked him to decline the earlier requests, Cummins said he had no comment.
It just keeps getting bigger.
On a related note, what do Republicans have to say about all of this?
No Republicans showed up for the unanimous panel vote on issuing the subpoenas. The Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, Rep. Lamar Smith (Tex.), later called the session “political grandstanding.”
Respected federal prosecutors are fired for political purposes, there’s evidence of congressional interference in a criminal probe, and at least a few congressional ethics rules appear to have been violated — but House Republicans don’t care and won’t even show up for a vote on subpoenas.
They may want to sit in on next week’s testimony, though. The hearings are likely to be huge.