TPM Muckraker: Ex-DoJ Attys Question Civil Rights Official's Testimony

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http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003739.php

Ex-DoJ Attys Question Civil Rights Official's Testimony
By Paul Kiel - July 23, 2007, 11:18 AM
Who, me? retaliate? No.

We've written frequently about the efforts of senior political appointees in the Civil Rights Division to undermine the traditional role of the voting rights section. One of the main techniques was to add negative remarks to the performance evaluations for career attorneys; the message invariably sent was that this was a punishment for stepping out of line with the Justice Department's new priorities (protecting the rights of African American voters wasn't one of them).

Hans von Spakovsky -- a former senior lawyer in the Division whose nomination for a spot on the Federal Election Commission is currently pending before the Senate Rules Committee -- was a master at the craft. Details from two former Justice Department attorneys show how far von Spakovsky went to punish career lawyers -- and call into question the veracity of his testimony to Congress.

In written testimony (pdf), Von Spakovsky said the accusation that he'd retaliated against career lawyers was "simply untrue" because he lacked the authority to transfer or fire employees. He admitted, however, that he'd modified the performance evaluations of certain career attorneys, but said that such changes were approved by the Deputy Assistant Attorney General -- at the time, Bradley Schlozman, who's been heavily criticized for politicizing the Division. He asserted that there's "no evidence that any information included in any evaluation was false" and added that he was "unaware" that any appeals to those changes were successful.

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"To pick something that picayune, I was astounded," said Rich, a nearly 40-year veteran of the Civil Rights Division. As section chief, Rich completed the evaluations, which were then passed up to von Spakovsky. "You're trying to give an overall view of the type of work, the quality of work." Von Spakovsky and Schlozman only made such changes (seven in all), Rich said, to the evaluations of attorneys who made recommendations with which von Spakovsky disagreed.

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There's evidence that von Spakovsky not only changed the lawyers' evaluations, but also stifled their bids to appeal the changes. Contrary to the grievance process outlined in a Justice Department order, the appeals to those changes went unanswered for more than a year (grievances are supposed to be resolved in less than thirty days).

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