U.S. Attorneys Tell Of Political Pressure (Justice Officials Pushed For Probe Of Democrats)

Six fired U.S. attorneys testified on Capitol Hill yesterday that they had separately been the target of complaints, improper telephone calls and thinly veiled threats from a high-ranking Justice Department official or members of Congress, both before and after they were abruptly removed from their jobs.

In back-to-back hearings in the Senate and House, former U.S. attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico and five other former prosecutors recounted instances in which they felt pressured by Republicans on corruption cases and, and one said he was warned by a Justice official to keep quiet or face retaliation.

Iglesias - whose allegations of congressional interference have prompted a Senate Ethics Committee inquiry - offered new details about telephone calls he received in October from Sen. Pete Domenici, a Republican and Rep. Heather Wilson, both Republicans of New Mexico, saying he felt "leaned on" and "sickened" by the contacts seeking information about an investigation of a local Democrat.

Another former prosecutor, John McKay of Seattle, alleged for the first time that he received a call from the chief of staff to Rep. Doc Hastings, a Republican from Washington, inquiring about an inquiry into vote fraud charges in the state's 2004 gubernatorial election. McKay said he cut the call short....

Actually, a poster from N.M. reported that there were at least three Democrat scandals that the attorney failed to act on.

1. In 2004 a significant amount of evidence was turned over to David Iglesias showing where ACORN was fraudulently registering people to vote this included an affidavit from a 13 year old boy who had been registered but swore that he did not fill out the paper or sign it. There were other sworn statements that were obtained during an investigation covering both additional fraudulent voter registration and instances of voter fraud itself. To date no indictments have been brought.
2. 10 months ago the FBI completed and investigation on a kick back scam that involved the building of two new Court Houses in Albuquerque. This scam involved high profile state Dems who were paid for work that was not done to date no indictments have been brought.
3. His office almost blew the conviction of the elected State Treasurer in a kick back scam. They brought 23 indictments and Vigil was found guilty on just 1. The deal was that if you wanted to handle state investments and bonds you had to pay, Vigil and the previous Treasurer walked away with millions.

Rush just said that almost all the attorneys failed to prosecute Democrat voter fraud.

I think that is what Bush is angry about, the fact that Gonzalez didn't lay out in plain terms exactly what the attorneys did or didn't do to cause their firing. I think that he is also angry that the various Congressmen who complained about the attorneys are not stepping forward to take credit for their complaints and supporting the firings.

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