Here’s Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) doing his best to dredge up a good reason for U.S. Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias’ firing, even if it’s after the fact.
Iglesias received two calls just weeks before Election Day from two members of Congress asking him about his office’s corruption investigation of a state Democrat. Iglesias has described them as pressure calls, but Iglesias did not report the calls to his superiors, as required by Justice Department policy.
Cannon quotes a Justice Department official David Margolis as saying that “giving everything I know today, he would have been number one on my list” — meaning that Margolis thinks Iglesias’ failure to report the calls is a firing offense in Margolis’ eyes. But of course no one in the Justice Department knew about this when Iglesias was fired. Nevertheless, Cannon concluded, “So we did have problems with some of these guys, they weren’t exactly paradigms (sic) of competence, were they?” [Note: I think Cannon means “paragons,” not “paradigms.”]