In May, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias explained that he met for several hours, shortly before the 2006 election, with Pat Rogers, a well-connected Republican lawyer in Albuquerque, who was after him to prosecute dubious allegations of voter fraud. Iglesias told Rogers the truth — that he’d reviewed more than 100 complaints filed by New Mexico Republicans, but found no substantial evidence of a crime.
What Iglesias didn’t know at the time was that Rogers had, before their pre-election meeting, already taken his concerns to Washington. With help from Monica Goodling, Rogers complained about Iglesias’ reluctance on voter-fraud cases directly to top Justice Department officials, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), and Karl Rove. Rogers and another Republican attorney from New Mexico, Mickey Barnett, made clear that they wanted Iglesias fired. Not long after, he was.
Today, McClatchy moves the ball forward quite a bit more. (thanks to V.S. for the tip)
A New Mexico lawyer who pressed to oust U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was an officer of a nonprofit group that aided Republican candidates in 2006 by pressing for tougher voter identification laws.
Iglesias, who was one of nine U.S. attorneys the administration fired last year, said that Albuquerque lawyer Patrick Rogers pressured him several times to bring voter fraud prosecutions where little evidence existed. Iglesias believes that he was fired in part because he failed to pursue such cases.
He described Rogers, who declined to discuss the exchanges, as “obsessed … convinced there was massive voter fraud going on in this state, and I needed to do something to stop it.”
Iglesias said he only recently learned of Rogers’ involvement as secretary of the non-profit American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund – an activist group that defended tighter voter identification requirements in court against charges that they were designed to hamper voting by poor minorities.
As Rick Hasen recently explained, that would be the “incredible, disappearing” American Center for Voting Rights.
McClatchy’s report offers several helpful details about Rogers and the broader election strategy. Take a look.
