San Diego Citybeat’s David Rolland blogs on LastBlogOnEarth.com:

“When it came time to ask questions, I hurried over to the mic and asked 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.”

Arkansas Times‘ Lindsey Millar posts her take on the the David Iglesias interview at Arkansas Blog:

“More from the city of roses: David Iglesias, the former US Attorney for New Mexico, spoke candidly today to AANers at a lunch talk. He kicked off his speech with some quips about being a disillusioned Republican, who’d, to paraphrase President Clinton he said, “sipped the loyalty Kool-Aid, swished it around, but not swallowed.”

The only real question he wouldn’t answer was who he thought of the remaining US attorneys had prosecuted cases based on politics. That followed him admitting that he thought there were “a couple” out there.

Other things of interest: He said he found Ashcroft to be a straight-shooter, and he said that the shift from Ashcroft to Gonzales was one of working for people doing law enforcement to working for the White House.

He also said that he believes there’s a smoking gun email out there and reminded the audience that forensic investigations dig up “conveniently” deleted emails all the time. That nothing’s ever really deleted.

What else? In the open Q&A, Alan asked if there’s likely to be any fallout with N.M. Representative Heather Wilson and Senator Pete Domenici, both of whom called Iglesias to pressure him to proceed with election fraud charges on Democrats just before the elections last year. Iglesias noted that Wilson only won her seat by some 800 votes, so her position is probably tenuous, but that even though Domenici’s poll numbers are as low as they’ve ever been, the only Democrat in N.M. who could likely unseat him is Bill Richardson, who’s got bigger fish to fry right now.”

“I finally got to ask former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias a question I’d wondered about for years,”

writes Shea Andersen, editor of Boise Weekly on the paper’s blog, BW Beat.

Andersen continues:

“Iglesias, who is at the center of the storm over fired U.S. attorneys, spoke at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies convention that BW staffers attended.

Aside from his fascinating speech, which I’ll report on soon, I wanted to ask him about a statement he made waaay back in 2004, when I was a reporter in New Mexico.

Iglesias was announcing an investigation into reports of voter registration fraud in New Mexico. The action was the first step in what would ultimately become the U.S. attorneys scandal that is plaguing the White House just now.

The money quote from Iglesias? “It appears that mischief is afoot, and questions are lurking in the shadows.”

As we were having lunch in Portland last weekend, I got to ask Iglesias about his amazing statement, which played prominently in all the local news outlets, and eventually, beyond.

Blame The Hobbit, he said.

“I’d just finished reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy,” Iglesias told me. “That was very much a Bilbo Baggins sort of statement.”

I’m too behind back at work to write a long post on Iglesias’ talk at the First Amendment luncheon, hoping someone industrious from AAN will do that. I have two video clips, but the second one is too large to upload to youtube, so I’m waiting on some technical assistance. In the meantime, suffice it to say, I think it went well (but I was in it, so I’m not a great judge); certainly Iglesias did well. Here’s the short clip:

David Iglesias, a big fan of Flash in the Pan (which he reads in the Albuquerque Weekly Alibi) came by my booth for a nibble before his talk. Since I wasn’t able to attend, I was hoping to see a blog posting about it. I’m still hoping …

I’m sure everyone has been following the US Attorney scandal, but here’s a few background articles on former US Attorney David Iglesias and his role. Iglesias is the keynote speaker at the Saturday First Amendment luncheon.

The Santa Fe Reporter’s history of the scandal.

The LA Times story in which Iglesias recounts the pressure to prosecute voter fraud.

Iglesias tells Alberto Gonzales to cowboy up.

Iglesias’ NY Times column on why he was fired.

Iglesias questions the recent testimony of former US Attorney Bradley Schlozman over the timing of voter fraud indictments in Missouri.