Welcome to Gonzales Watch - Blawging the Ex-Attorney General

The Washington Post raised a host of questions in an editorial today questioning the seemingly politically motivated firing of the U.S. Attorney for New Mexico, David Iglesias (inset).

The ones that were raised suggest a highly competent prosecutor was targeted for purely political reasons.
Two GOP members of Congress from New Mexico, Sen. Pete V. Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson, engaged in improper arm-twisting when they called the federal prosecutor “before the election to inquire about a criminal investigation involving a Democratic politician.”

The Post suggests that the chronology of GOP and White House complaints against that were mounted against Iglesias for refusing to do their politically motivated bidding — i.e., indict New Mexico Democrats in voter fraud cases before the election — are worth grilling U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on next week at Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing.

But what remains particularly troubling — and missing from the Post’s editorial — is the fact that as a devoted patriot who proudly served his country as a Captain in the Naval Reserve, one DOJ document called him an “absentee landlord” as a reason for putting him on a list of U.S. Attorneys slated for firing.

At long last, there’s an answer to this blog’s question last month wanting to know who is working as Counsel for Sen. Charles Schumer (Dem. - N.Y.) on the Senate Judiciary Committe.

It’s Preet Bharara (inset); Time profiled him last week.

Schumer’s legal point man is sure to be busy prepping a list of questions that his boss can use to grill U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales next week at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s April 17, 2007 hearing.

According to Time’s reporter Massimo Calabresi, Bharara intends to “[expand] subpoena authority to cover two of Rove’s deputies–Scott Jennings and Sara Taylor–and to ask for more White House documents.”

Bharara is a graduate of Harvard College and an alumnus of the private Ranney School in New Jersey.

The L.A. Times has a new story on Monday that shines a light on even more aparrent misconduct by key White House officials serving under Pres. George W. Bush.

According to the LAT’s Tom Hamburger, the Republican National Committee issued laptops and other “back-channel” communication devices like pagers to Rove and other high-level White House aides when Bush took office in early 2001. This communication set-up came to light during the criminal trial of now-convicted Scooter Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney’s former Chief of Staff.

Hamburger reports that “Democrats say evidence suggests the RNC e-mail system was used for political and government policy matters in violation of federal record preservation and disclosure rules.”

The brunt of the time that this was happening, it was under the watch of then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales, in violation of federal law.

Under the Presidential Records Act, a sitting President and White House staff must take all practical steps to file personal records separately from Presidential records.

It provides an exception, howoever, under 44.U.S.C.§2201(3) for personal materials that aren’t required to be preserved:

(3) The term “personal records” means all documentary materials, or any reasonably segregable portion thereof, of a purely private or nonpublic character which do not relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President. Such term includes–
(A) diaries, journals, or other personal notes serving as the functional equivalent of a diary or journal which are not prepared or utilized for, or circulated or communicated in the course of, transacting Government business;
(B) materials relating to private political associations, and having no relation to or direct effect upon the carrying out of constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President; and
(C) materials relating exclusively to the President’s own election to the office of the Presidency; and materials directly relating to the election of a particular individual or individuals to Federal, State, or local office, which have no relation to or direct effect upon the carrying out of constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President.

Rep. Henry Waxman (Dem. - Calif.) requested e-mails last week from the RNC and Bush-Cheney ‘04 campaign committtee to reveal the extent of how the Presidential Records Act may have been violated by White House employees attempting to hide work-related communications under the guise of a non-work exemption.