Ex-Justice Department lawyer changes his testimony (Von Spakovsky)

[maddezmom]

By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Thu, July 19, 2007 email | print tool nameclose
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WASHINGTON — A former senior Justice Department official has backed off sworn Senate testimony that he consulted with senior agency voting-rights lawyers before inaccurately advising Arizona officials they could deny thousands of voters their rights to provisional ballots.

Hans von Spakovsky, who hopes to win confirmation to a full six-year term on the Federal Election Commission, revised his statement in a recent letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee after former senior department voting-rights lawyers challenged his veracity.

Von Spakovsky has served as a presidential recess appointee to the FEC since early last year. His nomination is in jeopardy because of questions about his conduct as voting counsel to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division from 2003 to December 2005.

In a recent letter to the Judiciary Committee, a half-dozen former senior division voting-rights lawyers charged that von Spakovsky was ``the point person for undermining the (division's) mandate to protect voting rights." They also have accused him of leading a partisan effort to suppress voting by Democratic-leaning minorities.

During his Senate confirmation hearing last month, von Spakovsky testified that he wouldn't have acted on his own in drafting a letter in April 2005 offering legal guidance to Arizona Secretary of State Janice Brewer on how to apply the state's new, toughest-in-the-nation voter identification law. Von Spakovsky assured senators that he would have acted only after consulting with the Voting Rights Section, characterizing himself as a middleman who didn't make policy.

more;http://www.mcclatchydc.com/reports/usattorneys/story/18179.html

[acmavm]

1. Gee, another republican liar.

Big surprise. :sarcasm:

[MasonJar]

2. Wow! He looks like a perfect fit for our boy George.