Iglesias did an interview on the Travis Smiley show. Here is an excerpt:
Tavis: When you say - and you've said it a few times now - that you have very good reason to believe that you were fired for political reasons, what do you mean by that?
Iglesias: Okay, we are political creatures. I ran for office as a Republican attorney general candidate in 1998. But once we are in office, similar to federal judges, we are expected to stay out of politics. In fact, John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, told me in his office six years ago, "David, you are not to engage in political activities once you're in office." And I took that very seriously, as did my colleagues.
What happens is when you do get engaged in political activities if you're a U.S. attorney, that is grounds for termination, and there've been a few examples of that in this administration and in prior administrations.
Tavis: So draw the line for me, then, between that advice coming from former Attorney General Ashcroft to not get involved in politics with your believing that you were fired for political reasons. What's the connection?
Iglesias: Sure. Because when I took the two phone calls, one from Congresswoman Heather Wilson, the other from Senator Pete Domenici - both -
Tavis: Both Republicans.
Iglesias: Both Republicans, both from New Mexico, I took their message to be file indictments against a prominent Democrat before the election cycle. And I take that from the questions they ask me. They were asking me questions of private, confidential, non-public information regarding an investigation we were then doing about alleged corruption.
So I didn't play ball with them, I didn't file the indictments because they weren't ready, and surprisingly my name was put on a list to be terminated within weeks of Senator Pete Domenici's phone call.
Tavis: On a personal level, if I might ask - I can certainly ask; doesn't mean you have to answer. (Laughter) As an attorney, you well know that, of course. On a personal level, how do you process - 'cause a lot of folk would not have had the courage, the conviction, or the commitment to stick to the truth and to do what you did when they, by definition, on demand, are going to put on Front Street the person who sponsored them to have that job in the first place. How did you decide inside of yourself that that was the answer you were going to give?
Iglesias: It was really hard. In fact, it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do because I knew there would be consequences. But as I talked to my wife about it, as I prayed about it, I just figured you know what? I can do the wrong thing, which is to stay silent and hope it never happens again, but I felt like if I didn't speak out, this would happen to future U.S. attorneys, and it's wrong.
Because our political system, our criminal justice system, is one that is apolitical in nature. It doesn't really matter if the president is Republican or Democrat. Historically, U.S. attorneys stay out of politics. I felt like this was a really bad new trend, and I wanted it not to be repeated.
Tavis: Let me ask you, to your point now, whether or not you think that, aside from doing what was right, aside from - if I can put it this way - standing in your own truth - aside from that, do you think you made the right decision? And I ask that against the backdrop of the fact that these investigations continue to go forth, the White House isn't cooperating, Mr. Rove invokes executive privilege - I can give you a bunch of examples.
Al Gonzalez is still attorney general; we'll come back to that in a second. But I could run you a litany of things that would suggest, if I were a cynic, that David Iglesias might have done the right thing, but so what? It don't matter; nothing's happened.
Iglesias: But the fat lady hasn't sung yet. It's too early. We won't know until the end of this administration, and I knew they would claim executive privilege. They would circle the wagons; they would try to give some information but not all the information. No, there is no doubt in my mind that I did the right thing. I know I did the right thing, and I've got no regrets for that.
Tavis: How does that empower you or make you rethink your choice?
Iglesias: It empowers me. It does not - I've never lost a night's sleep saying I should have been quiet. That's never entered my mind. And a lot of it's due to people - complete strangers in L.A., in New Mexico, in New York, in Washington - coming up to me and saying, “You did the right thing. We support you. Thank you.”
I had somebody say, “Sock it to Heather Wilson” yesterday in a restaurant. Complete stranger hugged me yesterday. That's very empowering, because the American people get it.
Tavis: And yet, unless my hearing is bad, Mr. Iglesias, I thought I heard you say earlier in this conversation that you're still not prepared, after all this, to change your political affiliation. What's the problem?
Iglesias: (Laughs) Because I believe in the core ideas of the platform. I like the ideas of the Republican Party, which are smaller government, less taxes, personal responsibility, government restraint. Only problem is, our leaders haven't been practicing that. We've outspent the Democrats for the past eight years. So there's a difference between the ideals, which I love, and the actual application, which I don't love.
Tavis: I'm about to moderate a presidential forum; we've already done the Democrats in June. I moderated a forum of all the Democrats running for the White House; I get a chance to do the same thing for all the Republicans on September 27th here in prime time on PBS. I wonder, that said, whether or not you think that the Republican Party has sort of lost its moral compass?
Iglesias: They have lost their moral compass. I've described it as they've fallen off the cliff. They're in freefall right now. Look at most of the members of Congress that are being investigated or have actually pled guilty to federal felony counts. Almost all of them are Republican. So come on, we talk big, we talk about family values and smaller government and being on the up-and-up, but the practice, as I'm seeing it, is just the opposite, and it's really disillusioning.
Iglesias: Let me tell you something: I'm heartbroken about it. When he was announced as our next attorney general, I was happy 'cause I knew about his history. He came from a dirt poor background in south Texas; his grandparents were immigrants from Mexico. He had to fight and scratch for everything he got. Nothing was handed to him on a golden platter.
But here's where I draw the line. His job as attorney general is to represent the people of the United States, not to be the White House counsel anymore. I don't think he ever made that connection. White House counsel, he's the president's lawyer. As attorney general, he's the people's lawyer. He's still being the president's lawyer. That's not what attorney generals do. In fact, just look at recent history. Janet Reno and Bill Clinton didn't get along. Reno was a good AG, because she knew her job was to represent the people and enforce federal law.
Tavis: What's the moral like inside the department right about now?
Iglesias: It's terrible. And I get this from career people in Washington, D.C. and in my old office that I talk to on occasion. It's not good. In fact, it's very bad right now.
Tavis: I've got three minutes here to go in our conversation - I wish I had more time. But I want to get to just a little bit of your personal story. I mentioned earlier that for those of us who've seen "A Few Good Men" a few good times - a bunch of times, I just saw it the other day, as a matter of fact - we know that the Tom Cruise character is, in part, built around what you have done in your career. Tell me about your back story.
Iglesias: Well, I was one of three Navy JAGs that tried that case. We had three separate courts martial, all down in Gitmo. Mine was the last to go - it was tried in December. Yeah, there was a code red. The Marines hurt - they didn't kill the fellow Marine, but they hurt him - and we asserted that offensive (unintelligible). So a lot of that's based on truth.
And I knew even then, as a junior officer - I think that was my second or third court martial - that this was going to be a real different kind of case, and it really transformed my career early on.
Tavis: So what do you (unintelligible) when you see a movie like that with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, no less?
Iglesias: Well, it's hard to put into words, watching the movie for the first time like I did in the early nineties and knowing what was going to happen, because I'd lived it. In fact, one of the other attorneys lives here in L.A. One of the three of us.
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200708/20070806_iglesias.html
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