Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias has some harsh words for fellow Republicans during a visit to an Albuquerque, N.M. bookstore on May 19, 2008.
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.The first chapter, titled, "For Such a Time as This" (a quotation from the Book of Esther), describes how, shortly before he departed Baltimore-Washington International Airport to spend the Christmas of 2006 with his family in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Iglesias received a message on his BlackBerry from his assistant telling him to phone director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA), Mike Battle, which he did and his reactions on being told to resign, "effective the end of January".
Iglesias writes:
I consider it one of the ironies of history that my personal "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 historical 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.
"It's ironic to think," Iglesias now reflects, "that I had once been offered the position of director of EOUSA. If I'd taken it, I'd have been the one who would have had to make that fateful phone call."
The penultimate chapter is titled, "All Roads Lead to Rove", the final one, "Fredo", a reference to the little man who occupied the office of Attorney General when Iglesias was fired (alas, he is no longer with us), and whose famous powers of recollection have so often formed the subject of posts on this blog.
Chapter 1 can be read online (click here) and is well worth reading, as no doubt, is the rest of the book.
In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration
From the Inside Flap:
David Iglesias's first encounter with Alberto Gonzales was when he was White House counsel in 2001. Something Gonzales said really stuck in his mind. "This is a tough town," Gonzales told him. "They are out to destroy the president, and it is my job to protect him." Who knew he would even break the law to do it?
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, concerning an assaulted marine in Guantanamo Bay, became the basis for the movie A Few Good Men. When Bush chose Iglesias 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, asking 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.
Packed with previously unrevealed facts, In Justice follows Iglesias and his colleagues, who would soon be known as the Justice League, as they pieced together the sources and purpose of the conspiracy against them. In fascinating detail, it reveals how various members of the group viewed their own dismissals, reacted to threats from Justice Department officials designed to ensure their silence, and struggled to find a way to respond to the growing furor over the case.
Complete with insights into the power and responsibilities of U.S. Attorneys and an impassioned plea for their historic independence, the rule of law, and insulation from politics, In Justice is a compelling, real-life political thriller that takes you deep inside the Bush administration's darkest moment.
Wiley publishers substitute the last two paragraphs above with the following paragraph:
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.
