Printable Version

Rights/Reprints

David Iglesias, the former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico who was dismissed in the U.S. attorney firings in 2006, shot back at former White House adviser Karl Rove Tuesday, calling the former Bush official’s allegations “a complete fabrication,” reported the Washington Independent.

In his memoir “Courage and Consequencesâ€� released Tuesday by Simon and Schuster, Rove said he did not put Iglesias’ name on the DOJ firing list. But Rove did cop to forwarding three complaints about Iglesias to the Justice Department. The complaints alleged that Iglesias of failed to investigate claims of voter fraud in Albuquerque after the 2004 election, “bungled” a high-profile corruption case involving state treasurers and that he declined to file an indictment against several prominent state Democrats allegedly involved in a kickback scheme until after the November 2006 election.

Iglesias took issue with Rove’s assertion that he “bungled” the corruption investigation, noting state treasurer Michael Montoya plead guilty and he won a conviction against a second treasurer, Robert Vigil.

But Iglesias saved his most harsh criticism for Rove’s description of the kickback scheme, which involved construction contracts for a courthouse in Bernalillo County.

“That’s a complete fabrication,” Iglesias told the Independent. “That indictment didn’t get filed until three weeks after I left office — in March 2007. Look, here’s where Rove’s lack of knowledge of DOJ policy hurts him factually. It’s standing policy that you can’t file an indictment right before an election if you think it will effect the outcome. But I’m sure Rove heard from local Republicans that I was intentionally keeping my powder dry.”

Iglesias also denied that he had planned to run for the Senate in 2006. Rove suggested in his memoir that the prosecutor held off on the indictment because he wanted to run for the Senate seat and needed the support of local Democrats.

Read Iglesias’ complete response at the Independent.