I noted below that Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) now says that in response 
to complaints from constituents about US Attorney Iglesias’s slow rate of indictments on corruption investigations, she called him two weeks before election day to allow him to clear his name.
But let’s back up for a moment to look at the story that is emerging.
In his statement yesterday, Sen. Domenici attempted to paint a picture of rising frustration with Iglesias’s lackluster performance going back over several years — particularly tied to his inability “to move more quickly on cases” even after Domenici had made sure to make more resources available to his office.
As we noted yesterday, Iglesias’s DOJ performance reviews show no evidence of this. And federal judiciary statistics show just the opposite.
But late this afternoon we looked a bit 
further. Domenici claims he and his office had reacted to “public accounts” of Iglesias’s inability to move cases quickly enough. So we decided to look back through published articles to see whether there was really anything in the public record to substantiate Domenici’s claims.
And what did we find? Just one article.
And it’s very revealing.
It’s from the December 19th, 2006 edition of the Albuquerque Journal, the article announcing Iglesias’s resignation.
After noting Iglesias’s resignation the articles continues …
Rumors that Iglesias was in trouble with his superiors at the Department of Justice have been circulating for months.
The chief criticism of Iglesias has been that he had not provided enough resources for public corruption investigations. Some of that criticism has come from the political arena and some from the FBI, which has made political corruption its No. 2 priority behind terrorism.
Iglesias’ defenders, in private conversations, argued that the federal prosecutors are overwhelmed with immigration and narcotics cases because of the state’s southern border with Mexico.
The article then describes the guilty plea Iglesias got from former state Treasurer Robert Vigil, a Democrat, and then continues with this …
Iglesias’ resignation also comes while a second corruption case is in the law enforcement pipeline. That case could be as explosive as the Treasurer’s Office investigation.
The FBI has been investigating a kickback scheme centered on the construction of the multimillion-dollar state and metro courthouses Downtown.
Last month, Iglesias assigned additional prosecutors to that investigation, which had been in the works since September 2005. The investigation became public last spring when FBI agents began reviewing construction records at the Metropolitan Courthouse.
The pace of that investigation has apparently been a point of contention between investigators and Iglesias’ office.
The FBI confirmed in July that it had sent a case involving the courthouses to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Since then, indictments have been expected or rumored on a monthly basis.
This is the case that the whole scandal turns on, the one against former State Senator Manny Aragon.
And here the full picture starts to come into focus.
There’s no evidence that Iglesias wasn’t moving quickly enough through his office’s caseload, as Sen. Domenici claimed. But well before any of this story became radioactive national news, we have this press account of rumors that Iglesias was in trouble with the folks at Main Justice over not “providing enough resources for public corruption investigations.”
Some of the criticism came from the “political arena” and some from the FBI.
So it seems that there were complaints about Iglesias. But the evidence at hand suggests they all stemmed from claims he wasn’t putting enough muscle into investigating corruption cases. Indeed, Rep. Wilson (R-NM) now claims that many of her constituents had complained about “the slow pace of federal prosecutions” in corruption cases.
As we’ve seen, both the major public corruption cases Iglesias pursued were of Democrats. And the one all the fuss was about last year was the investigation of Manny Aragon. Now, indulge me for a moment. When not enough drug dealers are getting put away people complain. When too few illegals are getting rousted people may complain. But there’s a particular group of people who complain when an indictment of a Democratic isn’t coming down quickly enough: they’re called partisan Republicans. And yes, same thing if the shoe were on the other foot.
The December 19th report says that FBI investigators weren’t happy either. And I’ll be curious to hear more about that. You only need to watch a few TV cop shows to know that investigators are often out in front of prosecutors in the course of a criminal investigation. And any reporter will tell you that the way investigators’ complaints often surface is by way of political partisans. But however that may be, it’s the prosecutors job to decide if and when to indict.
So, as I said, the picture starts to come into focus and we see that the defense proferred by Wilson and Domenici is not so different from the accusation.
Wilson and Domenici were hearing from Republican supporters that Iglesias was taking too long dropping that indictment on Democrat Manny Aragon — it was commonly believed last fall that Wilson’s political future depended on it. Wilson and Domenici weren’t too happy about it either since Wilson was banking on an indictment before the election to save her seat. According to the Albuquerque Journal, Iglesias’s bosses in Washington weren’t happy with how long it was taking either. So within two to three weeks of the election both Wilson and then Domenici call Iglesias to ask what the delay is. He gives them both the cold shoulder. On election day Wilson wins reelection by fewer than one thousand votes. Five weeks after that, Iglesias gets the call from Michael Battle telling him he’s fired.
Pretty bad when you consider that that’s not the accusation but the defense.
It just gets better.
The administration’s only leg to stand on in firing Cunningham prosecutor Carol Lam has been that she’d been on the receiving end of complaints from hapless California Congressman Darrell Issa (R). Now he’s going to be testifying at tomorrow’s hearing too.
Here’s a press release up at his website announcing his appearances and cataloguing Lam’s alleged history of prosecutorial sins that led him to drive her from office.
He doesn’t getting around to mention her positive performance review.
This is the joker the White House is going to bat with.
TPM Reader BS isn’t buying it …
If I read Darrel Issaâs press release correctly, Carole Lam gets fired because sheâs not prosecuting enough border crime, even though sheâs prosecuting a major Congressional and DoD corruption case; Dave Iglesias gets fired because heâs prosecuting too much border crime, and not enough local corruption.
So whereâs the happy median for the Bush Administration? If Lam filed as many border crime cases as Iglesias, and Iglesias as many corruption cases?
Even their cover stories have holes the size of the Pentagon in themâ¦
TPM Reader DS sees the same problem …
Do I have this straight? Iglesias failed at his job because he devoted too many resources to border crimes and not enough to public corruption. Lam failed at her job because she devoted too many resources to public corruption cases and not enough to border crimes.
The attorneys who didn’t get fired must have threaded a pretty tight needle.
Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) to be a no-show at tomorrow’s fired US attorney hearings.
Another prosecutor forced out in 2005 for investigating a Republican?
The former federal prosecutor in Maryland said Monday that he was forced out in early 2005 because of political pressure stemming from public corruption investigations involving associates of the stateâs governor, a Republican.
âThere was direct pressure not to pursue these investigations,â said the former prosecutor, Thomas M. DiBiagio. âThe practical impact was to intimidate my office and shut down the investigations.â
Mr. DiBiagio, a controversial figure who clashed with a number of Maryland politicians, had never publicly discussed the reasons behind his departure. But he agreed to an interview with The New York Times because he said he was concerned about what he saw as similarities with the recent firings of eight United States attorneys.
Shocked?
It was a busy night in the canned US attorney scandal. You can see our main posts on the latest on Rep. Wilson here and the latest on Sen. Domenici here.
Today’s Must Read: what the purged prosecutor scandal has taught Alberto Gonzales.
The congressional hearings have begun.
We’ll be posting running updates at TPMmuckraker.
Update: CREW has requested an ethics investigation of Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM).
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings are turning out to be even more explosive than expected.
David Iglesias says Pete Domenici called him at home to specifically ask about the New Mexico public corruption investigation of a Democrat and whether the indictments would be filed before November.
When Iglesias said no, Domenici said he was very sorry to hear that and hung up the phone, according to Iglesias.
Iglesias said he felt pressured by Domenici and “leaned on.” The call made him “sick,” Iglesias told the committee, noting that it was “unprecedented” for him to get a call from a member of Congress at home.
Two weeks earlier, Iglesias had received a call from Rep. Heather Wilson while he was in a DC hotel room on DOJ business. That call was also brief, and Iglesias said Wilson asked whether there were any “sealed indictments.” Iglesias demurred, and the call ended with Wilson saying she guessed she would have to take his word for it and the call ended, according to Iglesias.
Video up soon . . .
Late update: Here’s the video.
More bombshells: Rep. Doc Hastings’ (R-WA) then chief of staff called Seattle U.S. Attorney John McKay to inquire about whether the feds were investigating allegations of voter fraud in the 2004 Washington governor’s race, McKay testified. McKay said he stopped the chief of staff before he went too far with his questions, but was troubled enough by the call to discuss it with his top assistant.
Developing . . .
Update: Paul is providing updates on the hearings at Muckraker.
Late Update: We have the video here.