The Latest Email Dump: Growing Evidence of an Iglesias Cover-Up

DOJ dumped another stash of emails while I was at YKos. Unlike the other late-in-the-scandal email dumps, this one doesn’t consist primarily of emails listed on Kyle Sampson’s list of withheld emails. These are new, previously unidentified emails. That’s not surprising, necessarily, since this dump comes from the Deputy Attorney General’s office, not the Attorney General’s office (where Sampson worked). I’m curious though why this dump came when it did, since other document dumps appeared to be tied to the testimony of individuals (that is, they released the Monica-related emails before she testified, and the Miers/Taylor emails before they were scheduled to testify). In this case, the dump may be related to Paul McNulty’s departure.

But I think it much more likely (since half of these emails pertain to Will Moschella, and not McNulty) that these emails are a response to HJC’s interim report on the USA scandal, specifically regarding allegations relating to David Iglesias’ firing.

HJC’s Allegations of an Iglesias Firing Cover-Up

As I wrote when the report came out, the most incendiary allegation in the report is that DOJ conspired to keep the reasons behind David Iglesias’ firing secret. It included Gonzales in this claim, but also asserted that Will Moschella and Paul McNulty may have specifically tried to cover up the actions from fall 2006 that resulted in Iglesias’ firing. The report specifically alleged that Moschella and McNulty downplayed the import of an October 2006 call from Senator Domenici.

The Committee also has concern about the statements made by Mr. McNultyand Mr. Moschella to the Senate and House Judiciary Committeesregarding the firing of David Iglesias. Neither official testified thatthe firing may have been based in whole or in part on a call receivedby Mr. McNulty from Senator Domenici in October 2006, even though Mr.McNulty stated during his subsequent interview with the Committee thatsuch a call from Senator Domenici was at least important to hisdecision not to object to Mr. Iglesias’ presence on the firing list.Furthermore, the omission of that information may have been deliberate.Monica Goodling stated in her testimony before the Committee that theissue of the call from Sen. Domenici had come up during a preparationsession in advance of Mr. McNulty’s briefing to members of the SenateJudiciary Committee in early February 2007, and that Mr. McNultydirected her to omit the reference from the materials she was draftingfor him to use.

Even while Gonzales misrepresented the purpose behind some spring 2006 calls: