Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) was fast out of the gate, jumping right in with questions about the firing of David Iglesias.
Despite Gonzales’ foggy recollections, some significant details emerged.
Gonzales could not recall details about his conversation with Karl Rove about voter fraud, although he testified that he did have such a conversation. He said that it covered three jurisdictions — New Mexico, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. He could not recall when or where or how it had occurred, only that it was in the fall of 2006.
He pinpointed the date of his conversation with President Bush about those same three jurisdictions as happening on October 11.
He also revealed that, when he spoke with Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) in the fall of 2005 about David Iglesias, that Domenici said that Iglesias “was in over his head.” Domenici was concerned that Iglesias didn’t have personnel for public corruption cases. Domenici never requested that Iglesias be removed, Gonzales said — he just questioned whether Iglesias was capable.
When pressed by Leahy, Gonzales could not say precisely why Iglesias was fired, nor when Iglesias’ name appeared on the list.
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