Blog: Prosecutor Called Firing “Political Fragging”

As both The New York Times and The Washington Post have reported, a number of the federal prosecutors who were fired in December had initially decided to go quietly… until, that is, the Justice Department declared publicly that they had been fired for performance issues. They didn’t like that one bit.

One of those angry prosecutors, apparently, is David Iglesias, the U.S. Attorney for New Mexico. According to Joe Monohan, a political consultant and blogger, Iglesias wrote in an email to a friend that his firing was a “political fragging.” From the email, excerpted on Monohan’s blog:

This is a political fragging, pure and simple. I’m OK with being asked to move on for political reasons, I’m NOT OK with the Department of Justice wrongfully testifying under oath to the Senate Judiciary Committee that I had performance issues…

Iglesias, who was nominated by Bush in 2001, elaborated on his office’s accomplishments in the email, according to Monohan, citing “reams of performance stats.” And, well, apparently the Justice Department agreed with Iglesias, because he was one of the ousted prosecutors who received a favorable evaluation.

Norm Cairns, a spokesman for the New Mexico U.S. Attorney’s Office, had no comment on the email.

But maybe we’ll hear this straight from the horse’s mouth tomorrow morning. Iglesias has scheduled a press conference, his last day on the job. The purpose: to “discuss his resignation and plans for the future,” according to a press advisory.