I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Former George W. Bush senior advisor Karl Rove spoke to the House Judiciary Committee in July and now the committee has released the transcripts of his testimony as well as that of former White House Deputy Chief of Staff…
Karl Rove has admitted that he forwarded complaints to the Justice Department about David Iglesias, the United States attorney in New Mexico, who says he was fired for political reasons, the New York Times reports.
It appears that a documentary about the U.S. attorney scandal that plagued the Bush administration is going to be quite revealing — or salacious, depending on your point of view.
Former White House deputy chief of staff and current Fox News commentator Karl Rove once again failed to appear to give testimony in front of a House committee. Rove was scheduled to appear in front of the House Judiciary…
In an Albuquerque Journal Op-Ed today, Democratic Party of New Mexico Chairman Brian Colón says political motivations are at play in the federal investigation into whether there was a pay-to-play deal between the Richardson administration and CDR Financial.
The full version of The Associated Press story detailing a subpoena of former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici’s records is now available.
It looks like Domenici isn’t the main target of the investigation by federal prosecutor Nora R. Dannehy —…
The David Iglesias firing is the scandal that just won’t go away for former Republican U.S. Senator Pete Domenici. The Associated Press is reporting that Domenici has had his records subpoenaed by federal investigators in relation to the firing…
Talking Points Memo’s Muckraker reported that former Sen. Pete Domenici is the focus of a federal grand jury probe into the firing of former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias in 2006.
Muckraker reported that “according to legal sources familiar with…
Talking Points Memo’s Muckraker spoke to a lawyer who worked for President Bill Clinton about an executive order signed by President Barack Obama. The executive order, signed on Wednesday, was regarding presidential records.
Neil Eggleston, a White House counsel
…
Talking Points Memo (TPM) looked into former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias’ new job of prosecuting detainees at Guantanamo Bay, aka Gitmo.
TPM noted that Iglesias isn’t on the job because of anyone from President Barack Obama’s staff or Obama…
It’s getting ugly out there, people. “Obama has embraced Richardson’s approach to governing, and so even without Richardson, the president-elect is welcoming corruption and corporate influence into his administration,” says an opinion piece posted today on dcexaminer.com. The piece…
Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias watched Patrick Fitzgerald with a sense of what could have been Tuesday. The hard-charging Fitzgerald is the U.S. attorney whose investigation led to the arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich earlier today.
Iglesias,…
It is something that Republicans, including a number of those in New Mexico, wish would just go away. According to Public Record writer Jason Leopold, a grand jury has issued subpoenas in a probe into the firing of U.S.…
Republican Party attorney Pat Rogers refused to say Thursday if a private detective who visited the addresses of two of the 10 Albuquerque voters cited at a news conference last week about voter fraud was working for the GOP.
Pat Rogers
N.M. GOP attorney Pat Rogers said Tuesday he doesn’t remember the 2004 e-mail a recent Department of Justice report cited and which made it onto Talking Points Memo. TPM used the e-mail as evidence of Rogers’ work in 2004 to pursue claims of voter fraud in the Land of Enchantment, which are similar to the claims the New Mexico GOP is currently pursuing in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 4 election.
The DOJ quotes an e-mail in a recent report that the authors say is from Rogers dated Sept. 29, 2004. The e-mail says:
I believe the [voter] ID issue should be used (now) at all levels – federal, state legislative races and Heather [Wilson]‘s race … You are not going to find a better wedge issue … I’ve got to believe the [voter] ID issue would do Heather more good than another ad talking about how much federal taxpayer money she has put into the (state) education system and social security … This is the single best wedge issue, ever in N.M. We will not have this opportunity again … Today, we expect to file a new Public Records lawsuit, by 3 Republican legislators, demanding the Bernalillo county clerk locate and produce (before Oct 15) ALL of the registrations signed by the ACORN employee.
The language in the e-mail gives the appearance that the author is more interested in achieving political gain than assuring the integrity of the voting process.
“Here’s why that is fouled up and unfair to publish an excerpt” of an e-mail, Rogers told the Independent Tuesday afternoon. “In 2004 the issue was whether the Secretary of State was going to get away with ignoring the voter ID law.”
New Mexico in 2004 had a voter ID law that required people who showed up to the polls to present a form of identification, not a photo ID necessarily.
“All the papers editorialized in favor of the statute and that ID should be shown. It was a really minor requirement. That’s the problem with running an e-mail out of context,” Rogers told the Independent.
Rogers went on to say that the DOJ report that criticized him and others for putting pressure on Washington officials to fire former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias is rife with errors. He did not give any examples of those inaccuracies. As the Independent noted Monday, the report, which ran more than 300 pages, dedicated an entire chapter — more than 50 pages — to the firing of Iglesias, and Rogers’ name popped up several times.
Several references in the DOJ report revolved around Rogers and prominent NM Republican Mickey Barnett taking their complaints directly to DOJ officials in Washington. They met with several top DOJ personnel, including the department’s White House liaison, Monica Goodling. The report added a follow up to that visit. On Feb. 28, 2007, the day David Iglesias publicly announced what he considered the reasons for his firing at a press conference, Matthew Friedrich, then Chief of Staff to Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher, told Kyle Sampson of his meeting with Rogers and Barnett that had occurred several months before. Sampson was then chief of staff to then U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Friedrich told the authors of the DOJ report “that he is certain that he did not tell Sampson about Rogers and Barnett before then because he regarded their complaints as unsubstantiated.”
Another reference to Rogers in the DOJ report included a footnote that said:
Patrick Rogers, a New Mexico Republican Party activist who complained about Iglesias to Department and White House officials, notified us through his attorney that he would not agree to be interviewed. In one letter, he also stated that he would “consider providing testimony to DOJ, but only if the interview is conducted in public.”
Pat Rogers, a prominent GOP attorney, sparked headlines on Talking Points Memo on Monday night. The spotlight on Rogers comes as TPM focuses on the accusations brought by the New Mexico GOP last week of finding clear evidence of voter registration fraud that represents a “bombshell.”
On Monday, national Republicans retreated slightly from the charges of voter fraud in New Mexico after ACORN proved some of their charges wrong over the weekend. Meanwhile, the Obama campaign said that claims of voter fraud represent “a coordinated attack by Republican surrogates from Washington all the way down to the county level in the states.” And now come signs of media pushback against the voter fraud meme.
Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico is out with two new commentaries about the recently released report on the firings of nine U.S. attorneys (himself included). The report found the reasons Bush administration staffers…
A blistering 392-page report released Monday by federal investigators left the impression that the White House knew of David Iglesias’ firing as U.S. Attorney for New Mexico before it got official word — a finding for which investigators can thank U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M.
U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has named a special prosecutor in the case of the U.S. attorney firings to determine if criminal charges should be brought against former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, The New York Times is reporting.
Mukasey’s…
