Prosecutor’s Ouster Shifts Political Order
Dennis Cook/Associated Press
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL and DAN FROSCH
Published: March 11, 2007
SANTA FE, N.M., ..........
David C. Iglesias is the man out of a job. But political experts here are also assessing the damage to New Mexico’s two most powerful Republicans, Representative Heather A. Wilson, who won a re-election squeaker on an ethics platform in November, and the state’s six-term senior senator, Pete V. Domenici, Mr. Iglesias’s original champion and the man New Mexicans often call St. Pete.
Both politicians called Mr. Iglesias in late October asking about pending corruption indictments long reported to involve at least one influential Democrat. Some top Republicans here say they urged Mr. Domenici and Ms. Wilson to act after years of complaints about Mr. Iglesias’s performance.
Mr. Iglesias says that he interpreted the calls from Mr. Domenici and Ms. Wilson as improper political pressure and that his resistance ultimately cost him his job. The Justice Department dismissed Mr. Iglesias and seven other federal prosecutors in December in what Congressional critics call a political purge by the Bush administration.
Ms. Wilson, after first declining to confirm her own call to Mr. Iglesias, conceded that she had made it but denied trying to pressure the prosecutor. She also declined to be interviewed.
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL and DAN FROSCH
Published: March 11, 2007
SANTA FE, N.M., ..........
David C. Iglesias is the man out of a job. But political experts here are also assessing the damage to New Mexico’s two most powerful Republicans, Representative Heather A. Wilson, who won a re-election squeaker on an ethics platform in November, and the state’s six-term senior senator, Pete V. Domenici, Mr. Iglesias’s original champion and the man New Mexicans often call St. Pete.
Both politicians called Mr. Iglesias in late October asking about pending corruption indictments long reported to involve at least one influential Democrat. Some top Republicans here say they urged Mr. Domenici and Ms. Wilson to act after years of complaints about Mr. Iglesias’s performance.
Mr. Iglesias says that he interpreted the calls from Mr. Domenici and Ms. Wilson as improper political pressure and that his resistance ultimately cost him his job. The Justice Department dismissed Mr. Iglesias and seven other federal prosecutors in December in what Congressional critics call a political purge by the Bush administration.
Ms. Wilson, after first declining to confirm her own call to Mr. Iglesias, conceded that she had made it but denied trying to pressure the prosecutor. She also declined to be interviewed.
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