New documents suggest broader White House involvement in replacing New Mexico prosecutor

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New documents turned over to Congressional investigators Wednesday show that a White House official echoed a message from the office of Senator Pete Domenici to the Justice Department seeking the installation of a new 'team' in New Mexico's US Attorneys office.

"[Steve Bell, Chief of Staff to Senator Pete Domenici] mentioned he had chatted with you today about his request for a non-partisan team that specializes in corruption to be sent down to New Mexico," wrote Andrea Becker Looney, then the Special Assistant to the President in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, in a Dec. 21, 2006 e-mail to William Moschella, a top Justice Department official.

Domenici is currently under investigation by a Senate ethics watchdog for appearing to interfere with a public corruption investigation that David Iglesias, former US Attorney to New Mexico, was engaged in last Fall. Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) also contacted Iglesias, but no ethics charges have been brought against her in the House.

Iglesias was asked to step down on Dec. 7, and formally resigned in 2007.

Earlier information published by the House Judiciary Committee suggested that the White House had heard calls for Iglesias' firing.

Justice Department employee Matthew Friedrich told House investigators that Mickey Barnett and Pat Rogers, a pair of prominent Republican New Mexico attorneys had sought help from White House adviser Karl Rove to have Iglesias fired. The two were reportedly frustrated with his unwillingness to pursue some voter registration-related prosecutions.

In his May appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales also confirmed that Rove had expressed concern about Iglesias' failure to prosecute 'voter fraud' cases last fall.

Iglesias' place on the list of US Attorneys to be fired came late in the process by which the prosecutors were selected. Gonzales confirmed in the hearing that, "His name was brought forward to me, recommended along with others," but not until November of last year.

The White House ultimately has never ruled out its involvement in the firing of Iglesias, even at the level of direct connections between the President and Senator Domenici.

"[W]henever a senator has the President's ear...if they have a chance to talk about other issues, they will. And so I'm not going to rule it out, but I just can't say that Senator Domenici and the President ever had a one-on-one conversation about it. I just can't say that Senator Domenici and the President ever had a one-on-one conversation about it," spokesperson Dana Perino said in an April press conference.

The Dec. 21 e-mail is not the only instance in which Domenici appears in the new documents. On March 4, Justice Department spokesperson Brian Roehrkasse insists in draft talking points sent to a fellow spokesperson that Domenici had only expressed general concerns about Iglesias' performance.

"At no time in the calls did the Senator mention any specific public corruption case," Roehrkasse wrote to Tasia Scolinos.

In fact, Domenici and Wilson had both raised a particular public corruption case involving New Mexico Democrats with Iglesias.

In an earlier Feb. 28 e-mail, outgoing Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty also accused Iglesias of violating Justice Department rules.

"Iglesias is quoted in an Albuquerque Tribune story today as saying that he expects indictments in the corruption case 'very soon,'an obvious violation of Department policy in an ongoing investigation," McNulty wrote to White House employee William Kelley.

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