In Justice

Iglesias David

Description

The Bush administration's drive to politicize the Justice Department reached a new low with the wrongful firing of seven U.S. Attorneys in late 2006. Their action has ignited public outrage on a scale that far surpassed the reaction to any of the Bush administration's other political debacles. David Iglesias was one of those federal prosecutors, and now he tells his story.

Iglesias has long served in the Navy as part of the JAG corps. One of his earliest cases, about an assaulted Marine in Guantanamo Bay, became the basis for the movie A Few Good Men. When Bush chose him to become the U.S. Attorney for New Mexico, it was a dream come true. He was a core member of Karl Rove's idealized Republican Party of the future -- handsome, Hispanic, evangelical, and a military veteran. The dream came to an abrupt end when Senator Pete Domenici improperly called Iglesias, wanting him to indict high-level Democrats before the 2006 elections. When Iglesias refused, the line went dead. Iglesias was fired just weeks later. First, he was devastated. Then, he was angry. Now, he is speaking out.

Iglesias recounts his interactions with Bush, Rove, Alberto Gonzales, and other key players as he takes readers into his time at the Justice Department to reveal what top Republican officials said and did, and how they subverted justice.

Sujets

• Executive Branch
• American Government
• Political Science
• Member of Congress
• Congress
• United States Armed Forces
• Tom Tancredo

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781620458921
• Langue: English

Extrait

In Justice
Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration
DAVID IGLESIAS
WITH DAVIN SEAY
Copyright 2008 by David Iglesias. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Iglesias, David, date.
In justice : inside the scandal that rocked the Bush administration / David Iglesias with Davin Seay.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-470-26197-2 (cloth)
1. Iglesias, David, 1958- 2. Public prosecutors-United States-Biography. 3. Lawyers-New Mexico-Biography. 4. Public prosecutors-Resignation-United States-History. 5. United States. Dept. of Justice-Officials and employees-Resignation-United States-History. I. Seay, Davin. II. Title.
KF373.I38A3 2008
345.73 01-dc22
2008009569
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my wife, Cynthia, who unwaveringly stood beside me before, during, and after the tempest .

All of the thoughts and opinions expressed in these pages are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of any organization that the author may refer to or be a part of. Neither the Department of the Navy nor any other component of the Department of Defense has approved, endorsed, or authorized this book.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
1. For Such a Time as This
2. In the Shadow of the Statue of Liberty
3. The Pleasure of the President
4. The Cut
5. Caged
6. The Link
7. A Few More Good Men, and Women
8. Fallout
9. Performance Related
10. The Justice League
11. All Roads Lead to Rove
12. Fredo
Epilogue
Appendix A: Letter from Senator Charles Schumer to Alberto Gonzales
Appendix B: Excerpt from the National Association of Former United States Attorneys Resolution
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
You know who your friends are in times of trouble. This book could not have happened without the encouragement, support, and prayers of the following people: my four wonderful daughters, Claudia, Amanda, Marisa, and Sophia Iglesias; my beloved parents, Reverend Claudio and Margaret Iglesias; the best big sister in the world, Lorie Iglesias Heydenburk, and her husband, Bill, and their family; my incredibly supportive in-laws, Frank and Jann Corrick, Betty Sears, and Rusty Kuhns; my courageous fellow former U.S. Attorneys who cared enough about the rule of law to speak out, Dan Bogden, Margaret Chiara, Paul Pablo Charlton, Bud Cummins, Todd Graves, Carol Lam, and John Eddie McKay; my forever friends and the brothers I never had, Seth Barnes, Kevin McCarthy, Rumaldo Armijo, and my Wrong House buddies; my White House Fellows classmates, in particular Yvonne Campos and Megan Golden; my semper fidelis navy shipmates who are too numerous to count except for Captain Bill Morrison, JAGC, USN, and Rear Admiral Bill Payne, USN; the wonderfully dogged media who refused to let this critically important story die, in particular, Ruben Navarette, Jason Leopold, Paul Kiel, Josh Marshall, Dan Eggen, Marisa Taylor, Tavis Smiley, Tim Russert, Dan Rather, Chris Matthews, Mike Isikoff, Dahlia Lithwick, Phil Casaus, Gene Grant, Jeff Gardner, Jim Scarantino, and Julia Goldberg; the erudite Professor Jim Eisenstein, who has helped illuminate the history of the U.S. Attorneys; the fabulous professionals at DIILS, Colonel (ret.) John Atkinson, USMC, Walt Munroe, Captain Chris O Donnell, USMC, Lieutenant Derek Mills, JAGC, USN; my righteous Wheaton supporters, Dr. Duane Litfin, Marilee Melvin, Professor (ret.) Bob and Shirley Bartel, Professor Amy Black, Cindra Stackhouse Taetzsch, Dave Lawrenz, Chet and Diana Stewart, Jeff Hochstetler, Ammon Simon, Matt Farber, and Ryan June; my excellent book agent, Sandy Dijkstra, and her top-notch staff; my new colleagues Chris Kelly, Kurt Stevens, and Cathy Breeze; my brothers-in-arms, Ken Henley, Tom Bearden, Barry Wong, David Palmer, Marty Esquivel, Juan Masini, Henry Narvaez, Don Lobato, Larry Gomez, Tom Tomas Gilchrist, James Carroll, Jim Hudson, Bob Tedrow, Patrick Romero, Mikey Weinstein, and Dale Kuehne; Mrs. Victoriana Armijo, who had a special mass held for me, and her wonderful daughter-in-law, Claudia McKay Armijo, and the extended Armijo family; my college classmate Reverend Skip Gilliken, who had his entire church in North Carolina pray for me; my fellow reserve JAG officer, Lieutenant Colonel Derek Hirohata, USAF, whose comrades in Iraq prayed for me; my Wheaton buddy Phil Hull, who kept sending me encouraging e-mails from Yakima, Washington; Judge Stan Whitaker for his wonderfully supportive letters; my kind former bosses, David Campbell, Jerry Walz, and Jim Comey; and finally, the scores of citizens of every political persuasion, race, gender, age, and ethnicity who stopped me in the streets, offices, restaurants, gyms, military bases, churches, and airports across America to express their support. I will be forever grateful.
CHAPTER 1
For Such a Time as This
We have all experienced those moments when a shattering event overtakes and overwhelms us, changing our lives forever. As a nation, we lived through such a time on September 11, 2001, when nineteen men altered the course of history. Before that, you can point to November 22, 1963, when one individual rocked the foundations of our society, assassinating President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, or June 6, 1944, when thousands of Americans gave their lives in the D-Day invasion of Normandy.
I consider it one of the ironies of history that my particular day that will live in infamy occurred on December 7, 2006, exactly sixty-five years after the Japanese launched the sneak attack that took us into World War II. Of course, I m not comparing what happened to me that afternoon to any such epic date with destiny. At the same time, however, I realize that my personal Pearl Harbor Day is not without its own historic resonance. From that moment on, things were not the same, for me or for the country I d so proudly served. I d arrived at a point when my history intersected with America s history in a way that would change-and is still changing-both America s justice system and me.
I hadn t the slightest clue of what was about to happen as I walked down a long departure corridor at Baltimore-Washington International Airport to catch a flight home to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was cold outside. The high windows overlooked the busy tarmac, and a winter sun slanted across the crowds of holiday travelers hurrying to their gates. Bright plastic and tinsel decorations hung overhead. I was feeling a bit of yuletide cheer myself, anticipating my return home, where the sunny Southwestern winter stood in sharp contrast to the dreary drizzle of the East Coast urban hub I was gratefully escaping.
New Mexico is a particularly beautiful place to come home to at that time of year. The snow occasionally blankets the steep ascents of the Sandia Mountains, which rise more than ten thousand feet in magnificent relief right outside my front door. I had spent much of my life in the state, in Gallup, Santa Fe, and, finally, Albuquerque, where I had put down roots, started a family, and launched my career. But even after all those years, New Mexico never fails to live up to its billing as the Land of Enchantment.
Home, of course, was where my wife and four daughters- sixteen-year-old Claudia, fifteen-year-old Amanda, thirteen-year-old Marisa, and the youngest, ten-year-old Sophia-would be gearing up for the family s own seasonal celebration. As Christians, Cyndy and I had always tried to impress on our girls that there was more to the birthday of Jesus Christ than just another opportunity to indulge in conspicuous consumption. But it s hard to deflect any youngster s anticipation of presents under the tree, and I looked forward to sharing their excitement. Although Christmas honors the Advent season, happy kids are what Christmas is all about.
Except, as it turned out, on that particular Christmas. Our holiday that year would be filled with confusion, doubt, and rage, and it would begin right at the moment when I took out my BlackBerry for one last check before I boarded my flight. What immediately caught my eye