2 in N.M. Delegation Feel Heat Over Firings

Bell said he hired Wilson's first two chiefs of staff. In the spring of 2004, Domenici and Wilson installed her former fundraising chairman, Allen Weh, as chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party. Domenici has headed annual fundraising events for Wilson, including a September 2006 event that he co-hosted with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

By the fall of 2006, Wilson was facing her toughest race in a brutal political climate, as the Jack Abramoff and Mark Foley (R-Fla.) scandals became a central issue for Democrats. Wilson fought back by running ads accusing her opponent, then-state Attorney General Patricia Madrid, of failing to tackle corruption, particularly in a courthouse-construction investigation involving Democrats.

At the same time, local Republicans had been seeking investigations of Democrats over voter-fraud allegations. Weh told McClatchy Newspapers early last month that he had complained in 2005 about Iglesias's lack of voter-fraud prosecutions to a deputy of White House adviser Karl Rove. A Rove aide, J. Scott Jennings, had served as executive director of Bush-Cheney '04 reelection campaign in New Mexico. He has been subpoenaed to testify before the House and Senate Judiciary committees.

In his first evaluation report, in 2002, Iglesias -- a Hispanic and evangelical Christian whose service in the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps served as the model for the Tom Cruise character in the film "A Few Good Men" -- won accolades for being "well respected" by all law enforcement agencies and for providing "good leadership," documents show. Iglesias placed in the top tier of all 93 U.S. attorneys in March 2005 in a ranking system established by D. Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's chief of staff then.

Later that year, Domenici began complaining about resources for the U.S. attorney's office in Albuquerque and a backlog of cases. Documents show at least three phone calls -- in September 2005 and January and April 2006 -- from Domenici to Gonzales. In the first week of October, Domenici called Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty to complain again, but, according to Justice Department officials, Domenici never specifically asked for Iglesias's firing.

Domenici disputed that in his only statement on the matter. "This ongoing dialogue and experience led me, several months before my [late-October] call with Mr. Iglesias, to conclude and recommend to the Department of Justice that New Mexico needed a new United States Attorney," he said.

On Oct. 16, Wilson called Iglesias and, according to her statement, relayed complaints that Iglesias was "intentionally delaying corruption prosecutions."

The next day, back in Washington, Sampson sent his final preelection recommendations for U.S. attorney firings to another top Gonzales adviser.

Despite the complaints, Iglesias was still not on the list for dismissal at that time.

About 10 days after Wilson's call, Domenici spoke to Iglesias and, according to the senator's version of events, merely asked about the timing of potential indictments in the courthouse case. He denied pressuring Iglesias.

Iglesias, however, said that Wilson asked about "sealed indictments" in the courthouse case, and that Domenici inquired whether indictments would come "before November." Domenici hung up on Iglesias upon learning that his investigation was likely to go on for some time. (Indictments in the case were handed down on Thursday against local Democrats, including a former state senator.)

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Sampson said that, sometime between Oct. 17 and Nov. 7, Iglesias was added to the firing list.

He said he could not remember who added Iglesias to the list and what the reasons were. In that same time frame, Gonzales relayed to Sampson a complaint from Rove about the voter-fraud cases in New Mexico, Sampson said. The White House has acknowledged that President Bush himself had also delivered complaints to Gonzales about the voter-fraud cases in the state.

When top Justice Department officials met to consider the fate of Iglesias and a few other prosecutors, McNulty spoke up in favor of firing Iglesias. "All I remember is the deputy attorney general saying, 'Senator Domenici won't mind if he stays on the list,' " Sampson said.

On Election Day, Nov. 7 -- less than two weeks after Domenici's call to Iglesias, and as Wilson was barely surviving in her election campaign -- Sampson sent out a new draft of the U.S. attorney dismissal chart. Iglesias was on that list for the first time.

A month later, Iglesias was fired and Sampson reported to other Justice Department officials that Bell was "happy as a clam" upon learning the news.

What was seen as a victory at the time has turned into perhaps the greatest political storm in the career of Domenici, who long ago won the nickname "St. Pete" from both supporters and Democrats frustrated with their inability to make a dent in his political standing. Colleagues are stunned to see him enmeshed in such a situation. "I don't know anything that I can compare it to," said Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), who has served with Domenici for 24 years.

Bell acknowledged that Domenici has been affected by the allegations. "This is something that has had a real impact on him," Bell said. "It's been a huge disappointment to him, and it's been a substantial distraction."