In connection with the Gonzales hearing yesterday,House Democrats released a transcript of an interview with a Sr. Counsel to Gonzales, Matthew Friedrich. The Muckraker and McClatchey have been all over the portions of the report dealing with Sampson's use of Friedrich to try to put more pressure on USAs in certain states to bring voter fraud cases.
But my attention was caught by a reference in the law.com coverage of the hearings.
When elections were over, Sampson was suddenly less concerned with pursuing the voter fraud cases that had been so bright and shiny right before the election. This left Friedrich with some time for a breakfast meeting. So who did he end up meeting with? Friedrich passed the biscuits with lawyer Pat Rogers (former chief counsel to the NM state Republican Party and now one of Domenici's picks to replace Iglesias) and lobbyist Mickey Barnett.
So a late November morning, over coffee, a former lawyer for the Republican party in NM and a lobbyist with White House ties (Barnett) sit down with senior counsel to Gonzales to let him know they were "working towards" getting rid of Iglesias.
From the law.com story:
Matthew Friedrich, a senior counsel to Gonzales, told congressional investigators that in late November 2006, he had breakfast with lawyer Pat Rogers and lobbyist Mickey Barnett.
"I remember them repeating basically what they had said before in terms of unhappiness with Dave Iglesias and the fact that this case hadn't gone anyplace," Friedrich said, according to the transcript of his interview with congressional investigators. "It was clear to me that they did not want him to be the U.S. Attorney. And they mentioned that they had essentially ... they were sort of working towards that."
Friedrich told investigators that the two men had said they'd expressed their concerns to White House aide Karl Rove and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.
First, a bit about Rogers and Barnett. In addition to being former counsel for the NM Republican party, Rogers may have participated in a 9 donor, 5,000/plate, luncheon with Karl Rove at NM Republican Party Chairman Allen Weh's house. He's just doesn't really remember.
. Pat Rogers, former general counsel to the state Republican Party says he can't remember whether he attended the luncheon but that he also never discussed the matter with Rove or with Bush.
We do know that Weh discussed Iglesias with Rove. From the same article:
Allen Weh ...said he complained in 2005 about then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to a White House liaison who worked for Rove and asked that he be removed. Weh said he followed up with Rove personally in late 2006 during a visit to the White House.
"Is anything ever going to happen to that guy?" Weh said he asked Rove at a White House holiday event that month.
"He's gone," Rove said, according to Weh.
"I probably said something close to 'Hallelujah,'" said Weh.
Did anyone ask Rove to go after Iglesias at the Weh hosted donor luncheon? At that luncheon (which Pat Rogers can't remember one way or the other), Rove was seated next to Paul Kennedy. Kennedy is the Republican donor/lawyer who represented the accountant who went to the USAs office with information to start the investigation. Kennedy also advised state lawmakers on whether or not to impeach the Democratic state treasurer.
Kennedy believed that pushing the suit against the Democratic official before the election
... would help Wilson's re-election, and possibly hurt Democrats all the way up to Gov. Bill Richardson
Not that he was interested in that - he told reporters his interest was only in trying to "serve the public interest." So according to Kennedy, he never mentioned Iglesias to Rove.
Rogers, however, does admit to trying to influence Iglesias to push up the timetable on the case.
Rogers said he asked Iglesias before the election to talk about the case. When they finally met for lunch, Rogers said he told Iglesias, "David, in my mind, the failure to bring appropriate changes and proceed on a corruption case because of the pending election is as bad as ignoring it entirely."
From another report about the Rogers' lunch, in October before the elections, we learn that Rogers was not-so-subtly letting Iglesias know that the "community" was beginning to align against him.
Mr. Rogers said he spoke with Mr. Iglesias at a private lunch last October in Albuquerque to discuss the perception that he was not pursuing indictments in the courthouse corruption inquiry expeditiously.
"I asked him, ‘Do you understand that everyone in this community is talking about why there hasn’t been any follow-up?’
So prior to the elections, Rogers (who went on to represent Wilson in her recount contest), Wilson and Domenici all contact Iglesias to pressure him on the suit. Weh contacts Rove. We learned yesterday, from Gonzales testimony, that Iglesias' name appeared on the list on election day.
Shortly after election day, Rogers - quite possibly representing Wilson at the time - and Lobbyist Barnett meet with a Senior Gonzales aide to push home the point, through the back door, that the AG needed to know they wanted Iglesias gone. And from Friedrich's statement - that wasn't the first time they had told him about Iglesias. In describing his November meeting, Friedrich says, "I remember them repeating basically what they had said before in terms of unhappiness with Dave Iglesias"
In addition, from the law.com report, it certainly sounds as if Rogers HAD spoken with Rove (and Domenici). " ...two men had said they'd expressed their concerns to White House aide Karl Rove and Sen. Pete Domenici..." It's a vague statement - which one said what, and when, but it shines a different light on Roger's assertions that he had not spoken with Rove.
Then, a short time after Iglesias resigned, Domenici includes Rogers in the Senator's list of recommendations for USA.
The other participant in the November breakfast meeting, Mickey Barnett, is a lobbyist very tied in, not only with Republican state poltics, but also with the White House.
Although Barnett had been ousted from his national committeeman post in 2004, he had friends in the WH who helped him secure a nomination to the US Postal Service Board of Govenors Barnett had helped with the 2000 Presidential election recount. He caught some flack from REpublicans in NM in 2004 for being a paid lobbyist while also holding the slot of national committeeman and was ousted. Bush remedied that by making him a Postal Board Govenor - while also being a paid lobbyist.
So a 2000 election recount lawyer, lobbyist, and Bush nominee to the UPSBoard of Govenors has breakfast with a Sr. Gonzales aide and with the lawyer who pressured Iglesias before the trial, and represents Wilson in the recount, and is going to be nominated to take Iglesias' place, and can't recall a 5000 donor lunch, but didn't speak to Rove (or did he?). Both of them are intent on telling the aide, and not for the first time apparently, that Iglesias has to go. Iglesias is part of the Pearl Harbor filings.
But don't worry - there's nothing to see here. Gonzales would never have a USA fired for improper poltical reasons. He doesn't know what the reason is for Iglesias to have been fired, but it couldn't have been improper.
UPDATE - THANKS TO PEACE VOTER & Diarist EZ WRITER FOR THIS: The dynamic duo met with Monica Goodling back in June, prior to the Oct. arm twisting from Rogers, calls from Domenici, etc.
I found this quote from a March 18, 2007 Washington Post article in a highly recommended EZ Writer diary:
In the New Mexico case, two prominent Republican attorneys, Mickey Barnett and Patrick J. Rogers, met last June with Gonzales's senior counsel, Monica Goodling, to complain that Iglesias was inattentive to voter fraud. Goodling met with them after a colleague sent her a note saying, ``It is sensitive--perhaps you should do it,'' an internal e-mail exchange shows.
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LInk to diary:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
SECOND UPDATE - THANKS TO EMPTYWHEEL for info and links:
Here is the
Friedrich testimony about the meeting
and
Here is a link to Roger's being nominated by Domenici
for the USA slot