Dear Reader, 

It is a tense time. Accusations are flying. The country has learned that a Republican U.S. Attorney was pushed out of office months ago, ostensibly for not pursuing baseless election fraud cases, which Republican leaders were desperately pressing for. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is investigating, taking testimony from the removed prosecutor, who asserts he was purged for not doing the political bidding of the party in power.

Sound familiar? Well, I am not talking about the closed-door testimony given yesterday by forced-out Atlanta U.S. Attorney B.J. Pak. He abruptly resigned on January 4, 2021, because Trump wanted him gone for not bringing meritless cases to undermine the 2020 election in Georgia. I’m not referring to that, though I could be. Rather, I’m talking about former New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, who was fired under similar sinister circumstances in December 2006. I was the lead staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation of the firing of Iglesias, and several other Republican U.S. Attorneys, so you can forgive me my déjà vu. 

History may not quite repeat itself, but dangerous impropriety sure does.