The Albuquerque Journal has an article out this morning with new details regarding the firing of New Mexico US Attorney David Iglesias.
Here's the short version. Iglesias was not on the DOJ's hitlist prior to the 2006 election. In October, Senator Domenici called Iglesias and asked if a local Democratic political official would be indicted before the election. Iglesias said no.
After the election, well, I'll let the article pick up the timeline:
At some point after the election last Nov. 6, Domenici called Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and told him he wanted Iglesias out and asked Rove to take his request directly to the president.
Domenici and Bush subsequently had a telephone conversation about the issue.
The conversation between Bush and Domenici occurred sometime after the election but before the firings of Iglesias and six other U.S. attorneys were announced on Dec. 7.
Iglesias' name first showed up on a Nov. 15 list of federal prosecutors who would be asked to resign. It was not on a similar list prepared in October.
The Journal confirmed the sequence of events through a variety of sources familiar with the firing of Iglesias, including sources close to Domenici. The senator's office declined comment.
There's a lot more in the article, including the fact that Gonzales and senior DOJ officials held Iglesias "in high regard" before Domenici complained to the White House.
Read the whole thing. The White House is at the center of the Iglesias firing. Dead center.
Update [2007-4-15 13:54:39 by pontificator]: Don't miss Josh Marshall's analysis at TPM here.