Justice Department besieged by charges of cronyism

March 5, 2007
Justice Department besieged by charges of cronyism

The administration has said eight prosecutors were told to leave, all but one for performance-related reasons. However, Democrats have suggested ever more pointedly that politics was behind many of the dismissals, and the Domenici revelation fueled that idea.

Six of those fired, meanwhile, issued a stiff defense of their conduct and implied that they had had differences with Justice Department officials in Washington.

The Justice Department, besieged by charges of cronyism, acknowledged that lawmakers — both Republican and Democratic — had complained about several of the eight.

One, David Iglesias of New Mexico, was the subject of four phone calls from Domenici to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his deputy questioning whether the prosecutor was "up to the job," department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.