Fired U.S. attorneys tell of calls, threats
WASHINGTON – Six fired U.S. attorneys testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that they had separately been the target of complaints, improper telephone calls and thinly veiled threats from a high-ranking Justice Department official or members of Congress, both before and after they were abruptly removed from their jobs.
In back-to-back hearings in the Senate and House, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico and five other former prosecutors recounted specific instances in which some said they felt pressured by Republicans on corruption cases, and one said he was warned by a Justice official to keep quiet or face retaliation.
Iglesias – whose allegations of congressional interference have prompted a Senate Ethics Committee inquiry – offered new details about telephone calls he received in October from Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., saying he felt “leaned on” and “sickened” by the contacts seeking information about an investigation of a local Democrat.
Tuesday’s testimony also featured new allegations of threatened overt retaliation against the prosecutors, as former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins of Little Rock said a senior Justice Department official warned him Feb. 20 that the fired prosecutors should remain quiet about their dismissals. Cummins recounted in an e-mail made public Tuesday that the official cautioned the administration would “pull their gloves off and offer public criticisms to defend their actions more fully.”
The senior official, Michael Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, wrote in a letter to the Senate that he never intended to send a threatening message in his talks with Cummins. Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said “a private and collegial conversation” was “being twisted into a perceived threat by former disgruntled employees grandstanding before Congress.”
The six U.S. attorneys who appeared Tuesday had all declined to testify voluntarily, but had been subpoenaed by a House Judiciary subcommittee and threatened with subpoenas in the Senate. Their testimony marked the latest twist in the U.S. attorneys’ saga, which began quietly Dec. 7 with a spate of firings, but has prompted concern among current and former federal prosecutors that the firings – and the Justice Department’s evasive and shifting explanations – threaten to permanently damage the credibility of U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country.