OpEdNews - Page 3 of Article: Ex-Sen. Domenici Under Increased Scrutiny in US Attorney Firings Probe

Bell, who is also under scrutiny by Dannehy for the role he played in Iglesias's dismissal, "forwarded the complaint to the White House, stating that other U.S. Attorneys were able to 'do their work in an election season.'"-

"The next day Wilson called Iglesias inquiring whether he was delaying public corruption investigations,"- Fine's report noted. Ten days later, around October 26, Senator Domenici called Iglesias about the courthouse case, and asked Iglesias if an indictment would be filed "before November."-

"Several days later, on November 7, [2006], Iglesias appeared on [a] list for the first time"- of U.S. Attorneys selected for dismissal. The list was sent to the White House on Nov. 15, 2006

"Yet, even before the list was transmitted, the White House had apparently been informed that Iglesias's name had been included on it,"- the inspector general's report said.

The report noted that Domenici had phoned then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on three occasions beginning in 2005 to complain about Iglesias's handling of the courthouse case involving Aragon and other corruption probes and Iglesias's handling of alleged voter fraud cases.

"From September 2005 through April 2006, Senator Domenici telephoned Attorney General Gonzales on three occasions to complain about Iglesias's performance as U.S. Attorney: on September 23, 2005, January 31, 2006, and April 6, 2006,"- the inspector general's report said.

Gonzales was vague about the substance of the calls but said it "concerned Iglesias's handling of voter fraud and public corruption matters."-

Separately, legal sources knowledgeable about the probe, said Dannehy has already obtained "damaging"- testimony from former Justice Department officials regarding Gonzales's and McNulty's role in the U.S. Attorney firings, specifically, testimony that suggests both men perjured themselves before Congress when testifying about the matter and were far more involved in the planning of the firings than they had previously let on.

In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee two years ago, Gonzales said, "[n]ot having the confidence of the senior senator and the senior leadership in the Department was enough for me to lose confidence in Mr. Iglesias . . ."-

McNulty testified before Congress in February 2007 that the prosecutor firings were "performance related," an allegation he knew to be untrue. Documents released by the Justice Department showed that Gonzales and McNulty participated in an hour-long meeting with Sampson and three other officials on Nov. 27, 2006 - about two weeks before the U.S. Attorneys were fired - to review the plan to fire them.

Fine's report, which was prepared jointly with H. Marshall Jarrett, head of the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, said Domenici's refusal to be interviewed about his role in Iglesias's dismissal "hindered"- his probe.

One of the key findings of Fine's report was that Domenici helped "engineer"- Iglesias's firing via unsubstantiated complaints about his work to senior Bush administration officials, including Karl Rove, Gonzales, and McNulty.

"We concluded,"- Fine's report said, "that complaints from New Mexico Republican politicians and party activists to the White House and the Department about Iglesias's handling of voter fraud and public corruption cases led to his removal."-

Domenici, who said he had decided to retire from the Senate because he was suffering from a brain disease known as frontotemporal lobar degeneration, or FTLD, a deterioration of brain tissue that can lead to personality changes, difficulty with speech and dementia, was named a senior fellow earlier this year with the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The organization said Domenici will "provide counsel on all [Bipartisan Policy Center] initiatives, primarily working with the National Commission on Energy Policy (NCEP) focusing on nuclear and non-carbon forms of energy, and the National Transportation Policy Project (NTPP)."

According to the group's website, the center "was established in 2007 by former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and George Mitchell to provide a forum where tough policy challenges can be addressed in a pragmatic and politically viable manner. We seek to develop policy solutions that make sense for the nation and can be embraced by both parties."

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