By James W. Brosnan , Albuquerque Tribune, August 2, 2007

2 Aug 2007 // It appears the Senate will adjourn for its August recess this week with no answer from the ethics committee on whether Sen. Pete Domenici will face disciplinary action for a phone call he made to then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias about a pending criminal investigation.

Iglesias was interviewed for the first time on Aug. 1 by members of the House ethics committee about a similar phone call from Rep. Heather Wilson, an Albuquerque Republican. He said he could not discuss the details.

But Iglesias was interviewed this spring by two attorneys for the Senate's Select Committee on Ethics and has heard nothing back since.

Neither has Domenici.

Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican who is up for re-election next year, has been anxious to put the phone call, which he acknowledged to be a mistake, behind him. He told The Tribune he hasn't talked to the committee.

"I haven't tried to interfere," he said.

Senate ethics committee spokesman Robert Walker had no comment about the status of the Domenici inquiry.

The Senate ethics committee acknowledged March 5 that it had begun a preliminary investigation, as its rules require, of a complaint against Domenici by a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Unlike the Senate, the House committee is not obligated to investigate a similar complaint filed by the group against Wilson. And neither committee is required to complete investigations by any deadline.

Domenici and Wilson separately phoned Iglesias last October about a pending criminal investigation of former Democratic state Sen. Manny Aragon. Aragon was indicted this year on charges that he took part in a kickbacks scheme related to the construction of the Metro Court in Albuquerque. Iglesias has said he felt the phone calls were attempts to pressure him to bring an indictment before the November election.

President Bush fired Iglesias in December. His firing and that of six other U.S. attorneys has sparked investigations by the House and Senate judiciary committees.