http://pubrecord.org/law/3001/iglesias-long-suspected-rovesIglesias: ‘Long Suspected Rove’s Fingerprints Were All Over’ Attorney FiringsBy Jason Leopold
The Public Record
Jul 30th, 2009
In an interview Thursday, Iglesias said he was “not surprised” Bush “got involved in the decisions to dismiss the prosecutors.
“For something that became this politicized it had to get his input his approval,” Iglesias said. “I suspect when all the evidence comes out he wasn’t just in the loop he approved it.”
Iglesias said he has long suspected that Rove’s “fingerprints were all over this.”George W. Bush and his former top adviser, Karl Rove, were far more involved in the firings of nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006 than they had previously let on, according to internal Bush administration e-mails and interviews Rove gave to two major newspapers earlier this month.
The disclosures were made Thursday after Rove completed his second round of testimony behind closed doors before the House Judiciary Committee, which had recently struck a deal to secure Rove’s and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers’ testimony about their role in the dismissals of the federal prosecutors.
A Justice Department watchdog report released last year said the firings were largely politically motivated.
In March, Judiciary Commitee Chairman John Conyers and lawyers working with the panel, with the help of White House Counsel Gregory Craig, brokered a deal that resulted in Rove agreeing to testify before the committee privately with the possibility that may be called to testify publicly at a later date. The deal between Rove and Miers and the Judiciary Committee was made during the course of a court battle between the White House and Congress over Bush’s broad claims of executive privilege.
- snip -
Rove sat down for interview with the Post and Times earlier this month and downplayed his role in the firings. The publications entered into an agreement with him that they would not publish a report until he completed his interview with the Judiciary Committee. Rove’s interview with the newspapers, in which he portrayed himself as a victim of “grievances,” appears to be an end-run around the Judiciary Committee’s imminent release of the transcript of his testimony.
Jonathan Godfrey, a spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee, suggested that the e-mails obtained by Times and Post were leaked by Rove or his associates in an attempt to spin the story in his favor.
“It’s hardly surprising that Mr. Rove would minimize his involvement in the U.S. attorney firings or that selectively leaked documents would serve his version of events,” Godfrey told the Associated Press, adding that Rove’s role “was more substantial than his statements to the media indicate.”
The headlines the Times and Post used indicates how Rove tried to influence the reporting on his role in the attorney firings. He appeared to be successful in the case of the Times, which headlined its report: “Rove Says His Role in Prosecutor Firings Was Small.” The Post went in the opposite direction and headlined it’s story: “E-Mails Show Larger White House Role in Prosecutor Firings.”
Rove attempted to get ahead of another matter the Judiciary Committee was gearing up to query him about: the alleged political prosecution of Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.
MORE
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
