Last Blog On Earth

Those who read my last post know that I was in Portland this past weekend for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies‘ annual convention. Well, I’m still in Portland, but now I’m just sitting around in cafés and basking in the absence of sales tax.

Anyhoo, David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney from New Mexico and one of those whacked by the White House late last year for not being loyal-enough Bushies, was the keynote speaker at the convention’s First Amendment Luncheon on Saturday. Interviewed by Santa Fe Reporter editor Julia Goldberg, Iglesias talked about the importance of keeping politics out of the Justice Department and about how the U.S. Constitution’s a pretty good read—you know, if you’re into freedom and democracy and fairness and that kind of thing.

When it came time to ask questions, I hurried over to the mic and ask about Carol Lam, the former U.S. Attorney from San Diego who also got yanked. In his opening remarks, Iglesias had invoked Duke Cunningham—the former congressman who’s now sitting in a puddle of his own tears while doing time in the federal pen—suggesting that Iglesias truly believes Lam was fired because of her prosecution of Cunningham, and not because of Lam’s performance in fighting gun and immigration crimes. Iglesias noted that it wasn’t just Lam’s work on Cunningham, but also her indictment of Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the former executive director of the CIA who was charged with fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in relation to cases against Cunningham and Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes. He added that U.S. attorneys were given latitude in setting priorities, particularly in immigration-related prosecutions in border states.

But mostly it was the timing of an e-mail sent by Kyle Sampson, who at the time was chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, to William Kelley in the White House counsel’s office, that has Iglesias convinced that Lam was the victim of hardball politics. Sampson’s e-mail, which said there was a “real problem we have right now with Carol Lam,” was sent the day after Lam notified the Justice Department of search warrants in the Foggo and Wilkes investigations.

True, Iglesias told me, this is “circumstantial” evidence, but he said one can be convicted on strong circumstantial evidence. Still, he said, direct evidence is better, and he believes it’s out there in the form of e-mails that have yet to be uncovered. He pins his hopes on ongoing probes by the Office of Professional Responsibility, the Office of the Inspector General and House and Senate subcommittees.

Lam, for her part, is keeping quiet, unlike Iglesias. The folks at AAN actually asked me to see if I could get Lam to speak at the convention. My phone call to her represented the first time we’d talked. She was very nice, but she politely declined.