Go to Original
Senate Ethics Panel Admonishes Domenici
By Manu Raju
The Hill
Thursday 24 April 2008
The Senate Ethics Committee admonished Sen. Pete Domenici (N.M.) Thursday for
contacting a U.S. attorney in his home state during a wide-ranging corruption
probe, closing an investigation that clouded the Republican's six-term
Senate career.
The light punishment came after the committee found "no substantial evidence"
that Domenici tried to influence attorney David Iglesias when he contacted him
to inquire about the status of a 2006 investigation into corruption charges
on a state Democratic official. A possible indictment could have buoyed the
re-election hopes of Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.). Iglesias charged that Domenici
and Wilson were pressuring him to wrap up the investigation before that November's
elections, a violation of ethics rules.
In a letter to Domenici, the committee said it focused its inquiry narrowly
on the phone call to Iglesias, who was one of nine U.S. attorneys later fired
by the Bush administration.
The committee, which spent nearly $5,000 to send three staff members to Albuquerque
in March and July last year to investigate the matter, said that Domenici's
phone call to Iglesias, in advance of an upcoming election, "created an
appearance of impropriety that reflected unfavorably on the Senate."
The Ethics Committee's review is hardly an end to the firings of the
U.S. attorneys. Both chambers are pursuing contempt of Congress charges against
White House officials for refusing to testify on the matter, and the Justice
Department's inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility
have launched far-reaching probes.
Several people close to that investigation told The Hill in January that the
internal inquiry was looking at a wide-range of questions, including whether
senior Justice officials lied to Congress, violated the criminal provisions
in the Hatch Act, tampered with witnesses preparing to testify to Congress,
obstructed justice, took improper political considerations into account during
the hiring and firing of U.S. attorneys and created widespread problems in the
department's Civil Rights Division.
Domenici's involvement will likely be revisited in that internal review.
The senator is retiring at the end of the year, and Wilson is pursuing his seat
in Congress.
-------
Jump to today's Truthout Features:
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. t r u t h o u t has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is t r u t h o u t endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
"Go to Original" links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted on TO may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the "Go to Original" links.
Print This Story
E-mail This Story