House Panel Launches Probe: Did FBI Ignore Threats To Jail Black Voters?

[marmar]

from HuffPost:




Art Levine
House Panel Launches Probe: Did FBI Ignore Threats To Jail Black Voters?
Posted April 1, 2008 | 09:39 AM (EST)



Since the resignations of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others involved in the U.S. Attorneys and Civil Rights Division scandals, you might expect that the Justice Department would come clean and show a new commitment to voting rights.

Think again. At recent hearings before a House Judiciary subcommittee, new revelations emerged about how the Justice Department failed to investigate illegal mailers sent to African-Americans in Dallas threatening criminal punishment if they registered to vote through a community reform group called ACORN.

The House Judiciary Committee is launching a preliminary inquiry into the questionable way that the FBI office in Dallas -- after consulting with the Justice Department -- decided not to investigate the intimidating flier targeting Democratic-leaning blacks in a 2006 legislative race, purportedly because no federal laws were violated.

"That's nonsense," says Gerry Hebert, director of the reform group Campaign Legal Center and a former 21-year veteran of the Civil Rights Division. "That intimidation is a violation of the Voting Rights Act," he notes, which authorizes both civil and criminal penalties for any threats that aim to deter voting.

Hebert testified about the Dallas incident to challenge claims by the Justice Department's top civil rights official at February's subcommittee hearing that the agency was taking vigorous legal action to protect minority voting rights. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-levine/house-panel-launches-prob_b_94263.html

[L. Coyote]

1. FBI and No OH USA informed of OHIO 2004 voting irregularity evidence, Still waiting

for a reply!! Blackwell was silent too. I'm still waiting by the phone, checking e-mail daily.
I just know the are on it, and will call any minute. :rofl:

With new OH SoS Brunner and new AG Dann, reply was near instantaneous.

[L. Coyote]

2. kick