Iglesiasgate: Lawyers and Angry Colleagues

This fired US Attorneys story is really starting to percolate. The biggest news yesterday is that Sen. Domenici hired himself a lawyer, one with a scintillating track record:

(Lee) Blalack, a partner in O'Melveny & Myers LLP's Washington office, is an experienced defense lawyer. As attorney for Cunningham, who is serving a sentence of more than eight years, Blalack dealt with one of the federal prosecutors who was later ousted, Carol S. Lam of San Diego.

Why don't you add Ted Wells and the attorney for the BTK Killer while you're at it?

Clearly Domenici knows that he's in trouble. His second release of a statement responding to David Iglesias' claims was just gobbledygook, with lines like "I still do not know what he is talking about." But it's transparently obvious what Domenici was doing by pressuring Iglesias to indict Democrats in New Mexico, because the same thing was going on all over the country. In Washington state, there is now physical evidence in the form of a letter from a pro-GOP lobbying group to Rep. Doc Hastings, asking him to goad the US Attorney John McKay into investigating alleged voter fraud in the state gubernatorial race (won in a recount by Democrat Christine Gregoire) or recommend to the Justice Department that they fire McKay. The letter was dated July 2005. By late 2006 this is exactly what happened; McKay was fired.

Attorney General Abu Gonzales tried lamely to defend his decision-making, but again lied that all the firings were based on performance issues when they were transparently political. Here's Josh Marshall, who's been at the forefront of this story:

Let's be clear. The DOJ needn't establish a lengthy or any paper trail to justify firing a US Attorney. Maybe they didn't like the way she prosecuted gun crimes. Or maybe her bosses at Main Justice just didn't like how she went about her job. Maybe they just plain didn't like her. That's fine. And while it would be irregular to fire a US Attorney in the middle of a president's term for no evident wrongdoing, it would not in itself be improper. None of the USAs, as they're called, are irreplaceable. And they do serve at the president's pleasure.

The issue here is different. There is a clear and growing body of evidence that at least three of these firees were canned for not allowing politics to dictate their prosecution of political corruption cases. Or, to put it more bluntly, for not indicting enough Democrats or indicting too many Republicans. Which is to say they were fired for not perverting justice.

In the face of that evidence the administration has come up with a series of changing and often contradicatory alternative explanations, which range from the frivolous to the ridiculous.

The administration isn't at war with the fired attorneys or Congress. They're at war with the obvious.

The heat is getting to members of Congress. While House Minority Whip Roy Blunt defended Heather Wilson, who also called and pressured Iglesias to indict Democrats in New Mexico to save her job, other Republicans are very upset:

(Republican Senator from Nevada Jon) Ensign was particularly irate over the firing of Bogden, an independent who Ensign picked in 2001 to oversee federal crime prosecutions in Nevada. Bogden, a prosecutor in the Northern Nevada office of the U.S. attorney, was nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate in October 2001.

In December, the Justice Department fired Bogden over Ensign's objections. Ensign said last month he was told the dismissal was for "performance reasons."

Justice officials initially told Congress that was the reason. But Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General William Moschella told a House subcommittee "no particular deficiencies" in Bogden's performance existed....

Ensign said Wednesday he was decidedly unhappy.

"What the Justice Department testified yesterday is inconsistent with what they told me," Ensign said. "I can't even tell you how upset I am at the Justice Department."

The Justice Department is spinning and lying, to individual Senators and to Congress in open hearings. This scandal is now beyond their control. And it's still a crime to lie to Congress, last time I checked. If Michael Barone can figure this out, anybody can.

The emerging scandal surrounding the dismissals of eight former U.S. attorney should signify to American voters the depth, breadth, and permeation of corruption in the Bush administration.

When a U.S. senator (to wit, Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican) feels free to call a prosecutor at home and hang up on him for resisting political pressure in the course of executing his prosecutorial duties, the line between politics and law enforcement has been so thoroughly violated that it no longer exists [...]

Domenici would not have made that call had either a Democrat or a law-abiding Republican been in the White House. He would not have had the temerity to throw his weight around to such an outrageous extent.

What's going on in Washington is not sufficiently removed from the routine doings of a tawdry Third World dictatorship to give any American comfort.

The only difference between this situation and the events of the past six years is that we know about this one. And that's because the Democrats have been dogged in their determination to find the truth. They're sure to keep digging, and the spin coming out of the DoJ is sure to keep them digging their own grave.

UPDATE: Justice Department officials are going to be subpoenaed and hauled into Congress. Pass the popcorn.