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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.”
