Iglesias serves as the Director of the Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics and Economics in Illinois. He is also the Jean and E. Floyd Kvamme Associate Professor of Politics and Law. In April 2014, Iglesias retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) after 30 years of active and reserve service.
In October 2008, Iglesias was re-activated by the Navy as part of a special prosecution team for Guantanamo detainees suspected of committing terrorism and war crimes. He supervised the conviction of the U.S. v. Noor Uthman terrorism case; one of only six completed war crimes cases since the Commissions were re-established. In 2009, Iglesias was named as an honoree to Esquire magazine's annual "Best and Brightest" issue for his work as a terrorism prosecutor with the Defense Department's Office of Military Commissions.[4]
A political independent during his college years, he became a Republican while in the Navy. Iglesias in an interview with Tavis Smiley, said that he was for: "smaller government, less taxes, personal responsibility, and government restraint."[5] He added, "Only problem is, our leaders haven't been practicing that. We've outspent the Democrats for the past eight years. So there's a difference between the ideals, which I love, and the actual application, which I don't love."[5]
Iglesias was a state Assistant Attorney General (Special Prosecutions; focusing on white collar fraud cases) for the state of New Mexico (1988-1991), then an assistant city attorney for the city of Albuquerque (1991-1993). He returned to employment with the state of New Mexico, first for the State Risk Management Legal Office as Chief Counsel (1995-1998), and the Taxation and Revenue Department as General Counsel (1998-2001).
He was an associate with the law firm of Walz and Associates in Albuquerque when he was nominated as US Attorney for the District of New Mexico in August 2001.[9][10] Iglesias headed a panel that advised the U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on border and immigration matters. While serving on the panel, he opposed pulling the National Guard away from the U.S. border with Mexico.[11]
In 2005 Allen Weh, chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party, complained about U.S. Attorney Iglesias to a White House aide for Karl Rove, asking that Iglesias be removed. Weh was dissatisfied with Iglesias due in part to his failure to indict New Mexico State Senator Manny Aragon (D) on fraud and conspiracy charges. Then in 2006 Rove personally told Weh "He's gone."[12] Weh followed up with, "There's nothing we've done that's wrong. It wasn't that Iglesias wasn't looking out for Republicans. He just wasn't doing his job, period."[12] Three weeks after Iglesias was dismissed, his replacement brought a 26 count felony indictment against Aragon. In a plea bargain, Aragon pleaded guilty to three felony fraud counts.
Iglesias testified before Congress in March 2007, stating that Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Representative Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) called and urged him to rush indictments against Aragon prior to the November 2006 election.[13] In October 2006, when Domenici called to ask about the progress of an investigation, New Mexico U.S. Iglesias said he felt this inquiry was trying to "pressure" him to speed up indictments in a federal corruption investigation that involved Aragon. When Iglesias said he didn't think an indictment would be issued before November, "the line went dead." Earlier in October, Rep. Wilson also called about the indictments in the same investigation.[14] One month after the election, Iglesias was fired by the Bush administration, and his firing was central to the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy. Larry Gomez, who had been Iglesias' assistant, took over as acting U.S. Attorney,[15] but never received a presidential appointment to the post.
One of the stated reasons for Iglesias' dismissal was dissatisfaction in his prosecution of voter-fraud cases. Nevertheless, Iglesias "had been heralded for his expertise in that area by the Justice Department, which twice selected him to train other federal prosecutors to pursue election crimes" and was "one of two chief federal prosecutors invited to teach at a 'voting integrity symposium' in October 2005… sponsored by Justice's public integrity and civil rights sections."[16] The Justice Department said that part of the reason for Iglesias's dismissal was because of his frequent absences. In response to this charge, Iglesias stated that the reason for these absences was his mandatory service as part of the Naval Reserve.[17] That would have constituted a possible violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act (USERRA).
Dismissal aftermath
In 2008 Iglesias wrote (with contributor Davin Seay) In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration.[5][18]
On The Daily Show first broadcast on June 16, 2008, Iglesias was asked about his political ideology. Host Jon Stewart pointed out that Iglesias had been a committed Republican. Stewart asked whether Iglesias' experiences made him feel disappointed and betrayed. Iglesias replied, "Yes, and to use a Star Wars kind of imagery, I thought I was working with the Jedi Knights, and I was working for the Sith Lords."[19]
In October 2008, a report by the Department of Justice's Inspector General found that Iglesias had been wrongfully dismissed because he had refused to pursue prosecutions against the Democrat-linked community organization ACORN and a prominent New Mexico Democrat. "The real reasons for Iglesias' removal were the complaints from New Mexico Republican politicians and party activists about how Iglesias handled voter fraud and public corruption cases in the state," the report says. The Inspector General's report says that Senator Domenici's complaints were the "primary" reason Iglesias was fired.[3]
In July 2010, Department of Justice prosecutors closed the two-year investigation without filing charges after determining that the firing was inappropriately political, but not criminal, saying "Evidence did not demonstrate that any prosecutable criminal offense was committed with regard to the removal of David Iglesias. The investigative team also determined that the evidence did not warrant expanding the scope of the investigation beyond the removal of Iglesias."[20]
Personal life
Iglesias reviews Native American films, both fictional and documentary, and has written feature length articles for Native Peoples Magazine since 1992. In 2002, he contributed an article to Native Peoples, called "Brothers in Arms: Windtalkers".[21]
Pietro Vichi "Pete" Domenici was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States Senator from New Mexico from 1973 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, he served six terms in the Senate, making him the longest-tenured U.S. Senator in the state's history. To date, Domenici is the last Republican to be elected to the Senate from New Mexico. He was succeeded by Democratic U.S. Representative Tom Udall.
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On December 7, 2006, the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice ordered the midterm dismissal of seven United States attorneys. Congressional investigations focused on whether the Department of Justice and the White House were using the U.S. attorney positions for political advantage. The allegations were that some of the attorneys were targeted for dismissal to impede investigations of Republican politicians or that some were targeted for their failure to initiate investigations that would damage Democratic politicians or hamper Democratic-leaning voters. The U.S. attorneys were replaced with interim appointees under provisions in the 2005 USA PATRIOT Act reauthorization.
Allen Edward Weh is an American business executive, politician, and retired colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. He was a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of New Mexico in the 2010 election, and the Republican Nominee for the United States Senate 2014 election against incumbent Democratic Senator Tom Udall. He is the founder and CEO of CSI Aviation Inc., which has grown over four decades to become a leading provider of aviation services that includes mission-critical services for a diverse portfolio of government and specialty customers. The company specializes in two core service areas: Government Services, in which CSI provides large scale management of complex aviation programs; and Specialty Mission Services in which the company supports both commercial and government customers with medical flight services, emergency response operations, and secure air transport of individuals. It holds FAA Operating Authority and numerous certifications and licenses that cover all aspects of its business operations.
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A detailed chronology of events in the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy.
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