The Iglesias Cover-Up, Again

Most people who linked to Isikoff’s latest did so to note that Jack Goldsmith will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, for example, has already planned ahearing next month featuring the first public testimony of formerOffice of Legal Counsel chief Jack Goldsmith. A one-time administrationstalwart, he became convinced that Gonzales and other administrationofficials were breaking the law in eavesdropping on conversations ofU.S. residents without judicial warrants, according to multiple formerdepartment officials.

Well, I’m glad it only took Isikoff two months to get around to the "who what why when where" details of this story.

But I’m interested in a different detail. Isikoff relies on one named source–David Iglesias–and two unnamed sources in his story. The first of those had this to say:

The investigation (headed by the department’s respected inspectorgeneral, Glenn Fine) has already turned up new documents and e-mailsabout the purge that have not been made public and that areinconsistent with previous Justice Department statements, according toa key witness who was recently interviewed by the investigators and wasshown the material. (The witness asked not to be publicly identifiedwhile the probe is ongoing.)

Not that Iglesias would be a "key witness" or anything. Wait a minute …

Already, the House Judiciary Committee has revealed abundant evidence that there was a concerted cover-up of the reasons for Iglesias’ firing. Emails released earlier this month only added to the evidence. If I’m wild-arsed-guessing correctly that Iglesias is both Isikoff’s named–and unnamed–source, it suggests there is still more documentary evidence that the White House and DOJ worked together to hide the real reasons for Iglesias’ firing.

One more detail. Isikoff reaffirms–and this article supports–the fact that there is an ongoing Senate Ethics investigation into Domenici’s actions. Domenici sure seemed like he was happy that Gonzales had resigned.

Domenici was more tempered in his response. “The resignation ofAlberto Gonzales had become inevitable,” he said in a statement Monday.“His situation was a distraction to the Department of Justice and itsattempt to carry out its important duties.”

Domeniciadded that he looked forward to reviewing Bush’s as-yet unnamed nomineeto replace Gonzales “carefully and objectively.”

Then again, he has played dumb about his own involvement in this issue before. Lucky for Domenici that he and Bush had another opportunity to coordinate their stories on Monday, huh?