New documents show Rove's hand in attorney firing

New information on U.S. attorney firing doesn't cover Rove in glory

Published August 11, 2009 9:12PM (EDT)

Are the Birthers starting to wear thin as entertainment? Got the healthcare blues? And these town hall people, oy! It’s enough to give anyone a headache. Fortunately, Salon has just the thing: a trip down memory lane with Karl Rove. Apply directly to the forehead.

The AP reports today that e-mails and transcripts from closed-door testimony have emerged that directly implicate Rove in the firing of former United States Attorney David Iglesias. Though suspicion had centered on Rove all along, he defied a subpoena, leading to a vote to hold him in contempt of Congress. His colleague Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, did testify, and though she acknowledged that Rove had complained about Iglesias, she said that she couldn’t recall exactly what his role had been in the prosecutor’s dismissal.

But in March, Rove agreed to offer closed-door testimony and evidence, and after doing so in July, maintained his innocence. He declared that now, according to the released documents, Rove’s staff was actively seeking to get Iglesias fired. In one e-mail, aide Scott Jennings wrote to another Rove staffer, “I would really like to move forward with getting rid of NM US ATTY."

The background on this story was that New Mexico Republicans were hoping to get Iglesias to indict local Democrats and organizers, including ACORN, for voter fraud. When he failed to do so, the White House gave Iglesias the boot, along with a number of other U.S. attorneys who were dismissed for similar reasons.


By Gabriel Winant

Gabriel Winant is a graduate student in American history at Yale.

MORE FROM Gabriel Winant


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Department Of Justice Karl Rove War Room