Congress: Subpoenas Spotlight Fired Prosecutors

[Joanne98]

March 5, 2007, 8:56 am
Congress: Subpoenas Spotlight Fired Prosecutors
By Carl Hulse

Democrats promised intense oversight of the Bush administration if they took the majority in Congress, accusing Republicans of totally abandoning such scrutiny. Once Democrats won, the expectation was that subpoenas would be flying over Iraq contracting, pre-war intelligence and the like.
Well, congressional subpoenas will produce their first witnesses this week and the subject is a surprise – whether politics and an effort to squelch public corruption investigations played a role in the Justice Department’s decision to replace a series of United States attorneys around the nation.
In politics, events often overtake expectations and it is turning out that the Justice Department dismissal of the high-level prosecutors is emerging as one of the first subjects of serious Democratic inquiry.
The evolving story gained new momentum with the admission Sunday by Senator Pete V. Domenici, a veteran New Mexico Republican, that he had contacted now ousted prosecutor David C. Iglesias about the status of a corruption investigation in the state and had also sought his dismissal.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/congress-subpoenas-spotlight-fired-prosecutors/