Justice Department obstructed justice. Now, there's integrity for you!
In the matter of Republican campaign phone jamming in New Hampshire, the Department of Justice prevented prosecution.
The
Justice Department delayed prosecuting a key Republican official for jamming the phones of New Hampshire Democrats until after the 2004 election, protecting top GOP officials from the scandal until the voting was over. An official with detailed knowledge of the investigation into the 2002 Election-Day scheme said the inquiry sputtered for months after a prosecutor sought approval to indict James Tobin, the northeast regional coordinator for the Republican National Committee.
Remember: a great deal of DOJ effort was given to efforts to prove Democratic fraud where none existed. Now DOJ isn't talking.
Paul Twomey, a lawyer for the state Democratic Party, said the delay spared Republicans embarrassment at the peak of the campaign because a pending deposition would have revealed that several state GOP officials knew about the scheme, which was hatched by their executive director, Charles McGee. The delay also stalled the case beyond its statute of limitations, depriving Democrats of full discovery, he said.
Citing longstanding policy, spokesman Peter Carr said the Justice Department wouldn't comment on its investigation.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/23444.htmlThe prosecutor, Todd Hinnen, who was prevented from pursuing the case was transferred.
http://prairieweather.typepad.com/big_blue_stem/2007/12/justice-departm.html........................
From McClatchey again: "
Inside a GOP effort to rig the 2002 New Hampshire elections":Shortly before the November election, New Hampshire Republicans hired his Alexandria, Va.-based consulting firm, GOP Marketplace, for $15,600 to barrage Democrats' phone lines on Election Day with 800 hang-up calls per hour amid the tight Senate race between Sununu and Shaheen.
The tactic was aimed at disrupting efforts by five Democratic offices and a firefighters' union in Manchester, N.H., to shuttle voters to the polls. The state Republican Party chairman, John Dowd, halted the calls after the first hour, saying he feared that the operation was illegal.
Raymond said it was Tobin who first phoned him 2 1/2 weeks before the election and asked if he could jam Democrats' phone lines, connecting him with Charles McGee, the executive director of the New Hampshire GOP.
However, he said, when he phoned Tobin after Sununu's 19,000-vote election victory to tell him that a Manchester, N.H., police officer was looking into the scheme, Tobin responded, "I don't know what you're talking about."
more at:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/23357.html