In March 2007, White House spokesman Dan Bartlett belatedly claimed Iglesias was fired for "lack of leadership" because the 2006 corruption trial of former state Treasurer Robert Vigil "ended in a conviction on just one of 23 counts," which Bartlett characterized as "a devastating loss for the government." This fails to pass the straight-face test. A conviction is a win in a public corruption case. The number of counts is immaterial. The defendant effectively faces the same sentence. No representative of the Justice Department, including Gonzales, has ever repeated Bartlett's claim.