The record--i.e., a ton of emails--clearly shows that Rove did keep very, very close tabs on Don Siegelman's case, and on the status of those US Attorneys who weren't playing ball with the Republicans (that is, more specifically, with him).
Here, first, is Roger Shuler's latest, on Rove's close eye on the Siegelman case; and then the AP's piece on Rove's involvement in the firing of David Yglesias, followed by Michael Isikoff's Newsweek article, "A Vindication for Yglesias?" MCM Karl Rove followed Alabama politics and the Don Siegelman case closely, according to documents and testimony released yesterday by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. A White House staffer even sent Rove an "Alabama News Alert" about the Siegelman conviction before it had appeared on evening newscasts. <http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2009/08/rove-kept-up-with-alabama-politics-and.html>http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2009/08/rove-kept-up-with-alabama-politics-and.html Rove involvement in US attorney firing detailed <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/brand/SIG=br2v03/*http:/www.ap.org> <http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/FILE---May-15-2009-file-photo-former-White-House/photo/090811/480/113956766380429da04ecb5c2ee100b9/s:/ap/20090811/ap_on_go_co/us_rove_prosecutors> AP - FILE - In this May 15, 2009 file photo, former White House aide Karl Roves talks to reporters as he leaves Š By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer - 1 hr 6 mins ago WASHINGTON - Former White House political adviser Karl Rove played a central role in the ouster of a U.S. attorney in New Mexico, one of nine prosecutors fired in a scandal in 2006 over political interference with the Justice Department, according to transcripts of closed-door testimony released Tuesday. Harriet Miers, then White House counsel, said in testimony June 15 to House Judiciary Committee investigators that Rove was "very agitated" over U.S. Attorney David Iglesias "and wanted something done about it." The committee released more than 5,400 pages of White House and Republican National Committee e-mails, along with transcripts of closed-door testimony by Miers and Rove. Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said the documents reveal that White House political officials were deeply involved in the firing of Iglesias and the other U.S. attorneys. The documents show that staffers in Rove's office were actively seeking to have Iglesias removed after Republican figures in New Mexico complained that he was not pursuing voter fraud cases they wanted. In 2005, Rove aide Scott Jennings sent an e-mail to another Rove aide saying, "I would really like to move forward with getting rid of NM US ATTY." Miers testified that Rove relayed to her complaints about Iglesias from political figures in New Mexico but added that she could not recall whether Rove told her specifically that the prosecutor should be fired. "My best recollection is that he was very agitated about the U.S. attorney in New Mexico," Miers testified. "It was clear to me that he felt like he had a serious problem and that he wanted something done about it." Rove's aides kept him apprised of complaints about Iglesias in other e-mails released Tuesday by the committee. In a 2006 e-mail, Jennings told Rove that then Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., wanted Iglesias fired. "You are aware of the issues, I believe," Jennings said in the e-mail to Rove. Rove issued a statement Tuesday saying the documents "show politics played no role in the Bush administration's removal of U.S. attorneys, that I never sought to influence the conduct of any prosecution, and that I played no role in deciding which U.S. attorneys were retained and which were replaced." He added, "Rather than relying on partisans selectively quoting testimony or excerpting e-mail messages, I urge anyone interested to review the documents in their entirety." A subsequent Justice Department inquiry into the firing of Iglesias and other U.S. attorneys concluded that political considerations played a part in as many as four of the dismissals. A political uproar led to a series of damaging revelations about the Bush administration's political meddling with the Justice Department and the eventual resignation of then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Iglesias said in an interview Tuesday he was nauseated by the whole affair. "It's exactly what I feared. Over two years ago, I said that all roads lead to Rove," Iglesias said. "I've said consistently that he was highly involved, and now the evidence is there." Iglesias said there wasn't enough evidence to pursue the voter fraud cases that Republicans wanted. Conyers said he provided a copy of the documents to acting U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy, who questioned Rove earlier this year to determine his precise role in politically tinged firings. "After all the delay and despite all the obfuscation, lies, and spin, this basic truth can no longer be denied: Karl Rove and his cohorts at the Bush White House were the driving force behind several of these firings, which were done for improper reasons," Conyers said. Rove, who was interviewed by the committee on July 7 and again July 30, has told reporters in recent interviews that he acted simply as a conduit for other Republicans' complaints about the job performance of specific U.S. attorneys. Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said the documents show no evidence of wrongdoing. "Democrats need to stop wasting taxpayers' time and money on political investigations that are nothing more than the politics of personal destruction," Smith said. ___ Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report. ___ On the net: Transcripts of Rove and Miers interviews and White House e-mails: <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_go_co/storytext/us_rove_prosecutors/33013934/SIG=127pbo6gc/*http:/judiciary.house.gov/issues/issues(underscore)WHInterviews.html>http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/issues(underscore)WHInterviews.html http://www.newsweek.com/id/211507 News A Vindication for Iglesias? Tuesday 11 August 2009 by: Michael Isikoff | Newsweek The former federal prosecutor at the center of the controversy over the 2006 U.S. attorney firings said today that he feels fully vindicated by newly disclosed e-mails from the Bush White House showing that Karl Rove and his deputies were actively involved in arranging his dismissal from the Justice Department. "This confirms my worst nightmares," David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney in New Mexico, said in an interview with NEWSWEEK. "There were improper and potentially illegal-as in criminally illegal-reasons for my removal." His comments came shortly after the House Judiciary Committee released hundreds of pages of interview transcripts of Bush White House officials and internal e-mails that were obtained by the panel earlier this year and kept confidential until today. The material suggests, at a minimum, an often aggressive effort by Rove's office for more than a year and a half to have Iglesias removed as the chief federal prosecutor in New Mexico following a barrage of complaints from Republican Party officials and members of Congress that he was not doing enough to prosecute voter-fraud cases and bring indictments that would hurt Democrats and boost the GOP's prospects in the key swing state. Iglesias said today that he was "surprised" last month when Rove insisted in a rare joint interview to reporters from The New York Times and The Washington Post that he was merely a "conduit" of complaints about Iglesias, rather than a driving force behind the decision to fire the prosecutor. "This doesn't sound like he was merely a conduit," Iglesias said about the newly released e-mails and testimony. "This sounds like he had a very active role." Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, did not return a phone call seeking comment. But Rep. Lamar Smith, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, dismissed the significance of the new material. "Despite all evidence to the contrary, House Democrats continue to falsely accuse former Bush administration official Karl Rove of wrongdoing in the dismissal of several U.S. Attorneys," said Smith in a statement. "But the interviews reveal no evidence of wrongdoing in the firings." Whether the new material is enough to help a special Justice Department prosecutor bring any criminal cases is far from clear. For the past year the prosecutor, Nora Dannehy, has been investigating whether any Bush administration officials engaged in obstruction of justice in the decision to fire Iglesias and other U.S. attorneys. But there are some passages that raise fresh questions about the involvement of Rove's office. "I would really like to move forward with getting rid of NM USATTY," Rove's deputy, Scott Jennings, wrote in an e-mail on June 28, 2005, to one of his colleagues, Tim Griffin, complaining about Iglesias's refusal to bring vote-fraud cases that had been pushed by New Mexico Republicans. In perhaps the most significant passage in the new material, former White House counsel Harriet Miers-questioned by the judiciary committee for the first time in June-described getting a phone call from a "very upset" Rove telling her that Iglesias was "a serious problem and he wanted something done about it." "My best recollection is that he was very agitated about the U.S. attorney in New Mexico," Miers said in her interview with the committee, describing the phone call she got from Rove while he was on a trip to New Mexico. Miers said she then called Paul McNulty, the deputy attorney general at the time, to pass along the complaints that Rove had gotten from New Mexico Republicans that "the guy wouldn't do his job" on "voter fraud" cases. Although Miers could not remember when she got the phone call from Rove, his New Mexico trip was on Sept. 30, 2006, barely a month before Iglesias was placed by the Justice Department on the list of U.S. attorneys to be fired. The firing of nine U.S. attorneys provoked a political firestorm in 2007 that eventually led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, largely because of perceptions that he and other Bush administration officials had misled Congress about the reasons for the unusual mass dismissals. At first, Gonzales and other Justice officials insisted that the U.S. attorneys had been dismissed because of "performance" problems and that the White House had not played a significant role in the decision to remove them. But a Justice Department inspector-general report last year concluded that Gonzales, his chief of staff Kyle Sampson and others had made "misleading," and in some cases false, statements to Congress about the firings-and that Iglesias's dismissal in particular was deserving of further investigation because it followed complaints by New Mexico Republican Party officials that he was not doing enough to aid the party's prospects in the 2006 elections. The Justice inspector general, Glenn Fine, said in his report, however, that he could not get to the bottom of the U.S. attorney controversy because key White House players-including Rove and Miers-had refused to be interviewed, citing executive privilege. After the House voted to find the Bush White House in contempt of Congress and filed a lawsuit to enforce its subpoenas, the dispute was resolved earlier this year when the internal White House e-mails were turned over and Rove and Miers agreed to be interviewed. There is nothing in the material released today that conclusively shows why, in early November 2006, Iglesias was put on the list of U.S. attorneys to be fired. But another document points to what critics say was the partisan considerations that went into the decision: an Oct. 15, 2006, e-mail from Jennings, Rove's deputy, passing along a complaint from Rep. Heather Wilson, a New Mexico Republican, suggesting that Iglesias had failed to bring an election-eve indictment that would damage her electoral opponent, Patricia Madrid, the state's Democratic attorney general. Jennings told Rove in the e-mail that another GOP staffer wanted to know "why should the US attorney in New Mexico be shy about doing his job on Madrid." --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. 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