TPMMuckraker

Conyers Pushes Gonzales on Iglesias Firing

During the first line of questioning today, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) tried to get Alberto Gonzales to answer the simply of question of who put the U.S. attorneys on the firing list and why they were put there. Gonzales replied as he has in the past, by saying that he’d initiated a “process” and that he trusted the process. Conyers summarized this response, “So you don’t know?”

Conyers also cited the testimony of a Justice Department official Matthew Friedrich, who told congressional investigators that he’d met with two New Mexico Republicans who had complaints about U.S. Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias’ handling of voter fraud cases (i.e. Iglesias’ failure to indict Democrats). The two Republicans told Friedrich that they’d brought their complaints to Karl Rove and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM). Iglesias, of course, was subsequently fired.

When Conyers asked if Gonzales was aware of that conversation, he replied, “I am certainly aware of it now.”

Alberto Gonzales, U.S. Attorneys

Editor & Publisher

Josh Marshall

Managing Editor

David Kurtz

Senior Associate Editor

Paul Werdel

Associate Editor

Sara Libby

Assistant Editor

Igor Bobic

Reporters

Brian Beutler

Carl Franzen

Sahil Kapur

Eric Kleefeld

Eric Lach

Nick Martin

Evan McMorris-Santoro

Ryan J. Reilly

Benjy Sarlin

Front Page Editor

David Taintor

Poll Editor

Kyle Leighton

News Writer

Pema Levy

Video Editor

Michael Lester

Polling Fellow

Tom Kludt

Video Fellow

Clayton Ashley

Research Interns

Michael Brooks

Publishing Intern

Christopher O’Driscoll

Miles Read

General Manager & General Counsel

Millet Israeli

VP, Ad Sales

Bruce Ellerstein

Waldo Tibbetts

Bob Edmunds

Manager, Ad Operations and Sales Support

Versha Sharma

Deputy Publisher

Callie Schweitzer

Director of Technology

Eric Buth

Designer/Developer

Ni Mu

Matthew Wozniak

Tech Fellow

Dennis Cahillane