Judiciary Members Seek Answers on "Phone Jamming," Voter Suppression Cases = EXPANDING INQUIRY

[L. Coyote]

Have House and Senate Committees been laying the groundwork for expanded inquiries that lead back to fixed elections?

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http://judiciary.house.gov/newscenter.aspx?A=857
For Immediate Release - 10/3/2007
Judiciary Members Seek Answers on "Phone Jamming," Voter Suppression Cases


(Washington, DC)- Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Subcommittee Chairpersons Robert C. Scott (D-VA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Linda Sánchez (D-CA) sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Peter D. Keisler seeking answers about allegations of voter suppression in battleground states across the country, using a technique called "phone jamming," as well as failing to register Democratic voters and destroying Democratic voter registration cards. The committee's interest in this issue peaked recently as allegations of Justice Department and White House officials engaging in selective prosecution and other efforts to affect political outcomes arose out of the U.S. Attorney investigation.

"These cases – the notorious “phone jamming” case that arose in New Hampshire in 2002 and the equally troubling activities of a firm known as Sproul & Associates during the 2004 election cycle – present extremely disturbing allegations regarding interference with voters’ rights," the members write. "Serious concerns remain, however, regarding whether the department has adequately investigated and prosecuted these cases."

In 2002, New Hampshire Republican operatives jammed the phone lines of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and a Manchester Fire Fighters Association to hamper get-out-the-vote efforts on election day. In the letter, Conyers and his colleagues review charges regarding subsequent investigative failures in the FBI and Justice Department.

In 2004, Sproul and Associates was hired for voter registration efforts in several states but allegedly "engaged in serious misconduct such as declining to register Democratic voters and destroying registration cards collected from Democratic voters in several states prior to the national elections in 2004," the letter states. However, the lawmakers state that they have not been made aware of any "enforcement action, criminal or civil, by the Department on this matter."

The members are requesting answers about the cases by October 19. Click the link below for full text of the letter:
Member's Letter to AG Re: Voter Suppression = http://judiciary.house.gov/Media/PDFS/Conyers-Nadler-Scott-Sanchez071003.pdf

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The compilation thread linked below focused on the phone jamming case. A copy of the first of about 30 posts follows.

DU Archive Sep-06-07: NH Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH) Pushes for Phone Jamming Investigation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1750605

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NH Rep Pushes for Phone Jamming Investigation
By Paul Kiel - September 6, 2007, 5:11 PM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004092.php


The New Hampshire phone jamming caper lives on!

In a letter to House oversight committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) today, Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH) asks that the committee investigate. Not only is there evidence that the White House might have been involved in the jamming, Hodes writes, but there's evidence that Justice Department officials interfered in the prosecution. He wants the committee to "determine if a politically motivated plot did in fact obstruct justice in this case, and if so to take such steps as may be reasonable." You can read his letter here (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/hodes-phone-jamming). Democrats had earlier requested (http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002839.php ) that the Senate Judiciary Committee probe the matter.

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GOP Official Faces Sentence in Phone-Jamming
Democratic Lines Were Blocked in 2002 as New Hampshire Elected U.S. Senator
By Thomas B. Edsall - May 17, 2006; Page A10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/16/AR2006051601712.html

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When voting began Nov. 5, McGee's plan worked like a charm. For two crucial hours, an Idaho telecommunications firm tied up Democratic and union phone lines, bringing their get-out-the-vote plans to a halt. The effort helped John E. Sununu (R) win his Senate seat by 51 to 47 percent, a 19,151-vote margin.

Well before Election Day ended, however, the scheme began to implode ....

Tobin, a longtime GOP operative, was later appointed New England chairman for the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign, but resigned when he became a subject of the federal criminal inquiry. On Dec. 15, 2005, Tobin, 45, was convicted of two counts of telephone harassment.

Former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie decided to pay Tobin's legal fees. "He was accused of doing something in his capacity as an RNC consultant, and we believed him to be innocent," Gillespie said. While the RNC had no contractual obligation, "it's the custom, not written anywhere, that you covered your people," Gillespie said.

Gillespie said he informed the White House, but did not seek formal approval, before authorizing the payments. Mehlman said that under his chairmanship, consulting contracts now explicitly declare that independent contractors must be prepared to pay their own legal costs in civil and criminal cases.

[BridgeTheGap]

1. It's about f*!@: time!

Day late and a dollar short?

[L. Coyote]

2. We'll see. Has all that has transpired been just the public preparations?

You have to have the people on board in a democracy. I'm beginning to see a larger picture in all the investigations, as the issues overlap and coalesce. Are we going back to the 2000 Florida theft, via voter caging evidence from 2004 ... I suspect so.

The whole regime could be overturned in the end, with the public accepting that all that followed on the 2000 Junta is bogus.

Bumper sticker idea: Download Epoch 2000.

[L. Coyote]

3. kick