Rapidly Emerging Stories on Iglesias Matter

Talking Points Memo reports "the White House 'was aware of [Domenici's] concerns' and as we showed last night, Domenici's concerns were Iglesias' too slow pace of indicting Democrats."

TPMmuckraker has video of the key portion of Iglesias' testimony this morning before the Senate Judiciary Committee. So does Think Progress.

Here's a live stream of this afternoon's House Judiciary Committee hearing on the attorney firings, and a Daily Kos thread is dedicated to live blogging. Health Haussamen has a local version on the House hearing.

After filing a complaint about Sen. Pete Domenici yesterday with the Senate ethics committee, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today requested an investigation into Rep. Heather Wilson (R, NM-01) by the House ethics committee. Click for their complete letter. In their press release regarding Wilson, CREW said:

Rep. Wilson’s call to Mr. Iglesias violates chapter 7 of the House ethics manual, which prohibits members from contacting executive or agency officials regarding the merits of matters under their formal consideration. House rules also state that if a member wants to affect the outcome of a matter in litigation, the member can file a brief with the court, make a floor statement, or insert a statement into the Congressional Record. Directly calling officials to influence an ongoing enforcement matter is not an option.

House rules also state that a member may not claim he or she was merely requesting “background information” or a “status report” because the House has recognized that such requests “may in effect be an indirect or subtle effort to influence the substantive outcome of the proceedings.”

Rep. Wilson’s conduct may also violate the requirement that members conduct themselves in a manner that “reflects creditably on the House.” In a precedent cited by the House ethics committee when it admonished former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), the House has held that members are prohibited from asking an executive branch employee to engage in an activity having an impermissible political purpose.

CREW’s complaint alleges Rep. Wilson contacted Mr. Iglesias to discuss an ongoing investigative matter for the impermissible political purpose of harming Democrats in the November elections.

In Bloomberg's Fired Prosecutor Says He Was Warned to Keep Quiet, "H.E. "Bud'' Cummins told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Mike Elston, the deputy attorney general's top aide, threatened him with retaliation in a phone call last month if he went public [about his negative views of the firings]. Cummins said he passed the warning on to five U.S. attorneys who were ousted last December, believing that was what Elston wanted.

And don't forget my earlier post on this morning's testimony.