Iglesias on Meet the Press Highlights

New Mexico: Fired U.S. Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias was on Meet the Press this morning. Here is the transcript. Here are the highlights:

MR. RUSSERT: You wrote an op-ed piece for The New York Times, and I want to share that with our viewers and come back and talk about it. “Politics entered my life with two phones calls that I received last fall, just before the November election. One came from” Republican “Representative and the other from Senator [Pete] Domenici, both Republicans from my state, New Mexico.

“Ms. Wilson asked me about sealed indictments pertaining to a politically charged corruption case widely reported in the news media involving local Democrats. Her question instantly put me on guard. Prosecutors may not legally talk about indictments, so I was evasive. Shortly after speaking to Ms. Wilson, I received a call from Senator Domenici at my home. The senator wanted to know whether I was going to file corruption charges—the cases Ms. Wilson had been asking about—before November. When I told him that I didn’t think so, he said, ‘I am very sorry to hear that,’ and the line went dead.” He hung up on you?

MR. IGLESIAS: That’s right.

MR. RUSSERT: Did you feel intimidated by those phone calls?

MR. IGLESIAS: Pressured, leaned on, yes, because of the timeline, because of the fact that they were in a—in a—or Congresswoman Wilson was in a tight race at that time. I think she was behind. The, the local press had given significant coverage of this subsequent corruption matter. I couldn’t talk about it to anybody, much less members of Congress.

MR. RUSSERT: Had a congressman or a senator ever called you about a case prior to that?

MR. IGLESIAS: No. ...

MR. RUSSERT: And to this day, do you believe you were removed for political reasons?

MR. IGLESIAS: Absolutely, yes.

The Senate Ethics investigation is apparently ongoing as to Pete Domenici's role. We eagerly await their findings.