Fired U.S. attorney says colleague told him politics was behind his ouster

[babylonsister]

Fired U.S. attorney says colleague told him politics was behind his ouster
By Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Thursday, March 6, 2008



WASHINGTON — A longtime protege of President Bush told former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias that he was fired for political reasons and that he shouldn't fight his ouster, Iglesias says in a new book.

"This is political," Iglesias recalls Texas U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton telling him shortly after he was ousted. "If I were you, I'd just go quietly."

Iglesias, a former U.S. attorney in New Mexico, is one of eight federal prosecutors whose firings triggered a yearlong controversy at the Justice Department and led to the resignations of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and 11 other Justice Department officials.

Iglesias cites the exchange with Sutton in his upcoming book, "In Justice," as further evidence that he was forced out because Republicans were displeased with his refusal to prosecute Democrats.

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing: a U.S. attorney all but admitting that a colleague was being hung out to dry for reasons that had nothing to do with performance or professionalism," he wrote in a draft of the book, which McClatchy obtained.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/29698.html

[KharmaTrain]

1. We Haven't Heard The End Of This Case Or These People

I've heard Iglesias speak several times on talk shows and this guy sounds like he wants some major payback for what happened to him. I'd say the same for several of the other fired Prosecutors and there are words that there are still many prosecutors inside the Justice Department who want ot clean up the department and go after those who all but destroyed the system. And nothing is worse than a pissed off prosecutor (just look at Alabama)

I wouldn't be suprised to see Igelesias emerge in New Mexico politics....on the GOOP side after the implosion of that state's corrupt party.

[babylonsister]

2. I hope we haven't. And this current scandal with Heather Wilson

further emphasizes how corrupt NM might have been. Politics rules with no consideration for laws, seems to me.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3212103

[KharmaTrain]

3. The Delicious Irony

IRC, Wilson is now accused of antics similiar to the one Iglesias was supposed to hang on the Democrats in '06.

Even more delicious is if Udall can get an endorsement from Iglesias...

:hi:

[babylonsister]

5. It is, it is. Her career is over either way, I would think. And I

hear Udall has a good shot. Kharma! :hi:

[EFerrari]

7. In The Election Files, Greg Palast asked him if he was still a Republican.

He said that he hadn't left the party, the Republican party had left him. :)

[KharmaTrain]

8. I Think We Call That A Hedge...

I've long felt there's a silent faction of what is best called "ex-pat" repugnicans...people like Hagel who are keeping a very low profile right now in anticipation of a massive GOOP implosion and that they (along with Bloomberg) will ride in to pick up the pieces. But what pieces is another story...

If the GOOP is totally shut out this November...facing veto-proof majorities in both Houses and a Democrat in the White House, the knives will be out early and often and I see people like Igelsias being frozen out rather than embraced...blamed for the fall rather than standing up for principals and ethics.

Damn straight the party left him...and it's gonna be a long time until it returns.

:smile:

[SpiralHawk]

4. Heatherrrrrrrrrrrrrr Wilson (R-NM) was not only part of this anti-American axing

now she has been caught paying voters to go to NM caucuses to 'support' her.

Republicons = amorality, illegality, and anti-US Constitution.

Ship them all of to their own little corrupt Homeland somewhere far away from America.

[Hissyspit]

6. The hypocrisy never stops flowing from these people, does it?

The only good thing is that Americans seemed to have caught on to it to a great extent.

[L. Coyote]

9. "resignations of AG Alberto Gonzales and 11 other Justice Department officials" SO FAR that is!!