The Daily Background

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has written a letter to Attorney General Gonzales insisting he issue a statement to clear David Iglesias’ name.

Iglesias was the US Attorney for New Mexico that the Department of Justice fired last year over what it termed “performance related reasons.” Gonzales’ former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, testified under oath Thursday that he would not have recommended Iglesias be fired if he could go back and do the whole thing over again.

This seemed to be an admission that Iglesias was fired for the wrong reasons, although Sampson claimed he could not remember the exact reasons why he had been fired.

“In light of these startling admissions by your former chief of staff,” Schumer wrote to Gonzales yesterday, “It is imperative that you restore Mr. Iglesias’ tarnished reputation by confirming that his performance as a U.S. attorney did not warrant dismissal.”

Gonzales, who made a statement yesterday at a press conference, did not talk about Iglesias. Iglesias, the US Attorney who inspired Tom Cruise’s character in “A Few Good Men” was based, has sought an apology for tarnishing his reputation and a written statement from the Department of Justice that he was not fired for performance related reasons for several weeks.

Sampson also testified under oath that he believed the Attorney General had misled Congress and the public when he initially claimed that he was not involved in discussions relating to a string of US Attorney firings last year. Sampson said that he could remember Gonzales was part of at least 5 discussions or meetings relating to the topic, and suggested it could be more.

“I don’t think the attorney general’s statement that he was not involved in any discussions about U.S. attorney removals is accurate,” Sampson told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Iglesias had reportedly been investigating local New Mexico Democrats on corruption charges and two Republican lawmakers (Pete Domenici and Heather Wilson) had pressured him to hurry up the investigations in time for November so they could use them as political issues in last year’s midterm elections.

Emails released by the Department of Justice in recent weeks show that Domenici thanked Karl Rove’s office in a short note after Iglesias was fired. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group, has since filed an ethics complaint against Senator Domenici.

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