Exclusive Excerpts From New Black Panther Case Investigation Report (USCCR rips DOJ)

Pajamas Media ^ | November 18, 2010 | Hans A. von Spakovsky

[jazusamo]

The New Black Panther Party voter-intimidation case, which has rocked the Justice Department, will reach an important endpoint on November 19. At its regular business meeting tomorrow, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will consider a draft report on its investigation of the Department’s scandalously politicized handling of the case.

This case was unique in one vital aspect almost from its beginning — the existence of a visual recording of the New Black Panthers in their paramilitary, fascist-style uniforms, one holding a night stick, blocking the entrance to a polling place. That kind of direct evidence is very unusual in a voting rights case. It helped to graphically illustrate the preposterousness of the Obama administration’s dismissal of virtually the entire federal lawsuit the Civil Rights Division had commenced against the New Black Panther Party and several of its members. The feeble and completely non-credible explanations for the dismissal advanced by the Department’s political leadership only made the matter worse.

Most of the mainstream media initially ignored the lawsuit, despite all of the powerful evidence. That changed, however, with the dramatic and courageous testimony of former Voting Section lawyer Christian Adams (who resigned from Justice in disgust over its handling of the case) and former Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates (who was removed from his post by the Obama administration). Coates testified in defiance of orders from the Department’s senior leadership, who in a brazen act of lawlessness directed him not to comply with the subpoena issued by the Civil Rights Commission.

The draft report of the Commission that was leaked is devastating in its portrayal of the deviousness and politicization of the Obama Justice Department. The Department has misled the public, Congress, and the Commission from the very beginning.

For example, the Department claimed that career lawyers made the decision to dismiss the voter-intimidation case. But the report notes:

[The] record of communications within the Department appears to indicate that senior political appointees played a significant role in the decision-making surrounding the lawsuit. … [The Department’s repeated attempts to hide the involvement of Obama political appointees] raise questions about what the Department is trying to hide.

The Commission’s report concludes:

There is currently a conscious policy within the Department that voting rights laws should not be enforced in a race-neutral fashion. … [The testimony of Adams and Coates provided] specific examples of open hostility and opposition to pursuing cases in which whites were the perceived victims and minorities the alleged wrongdoers.

Further, the dismissal of the Panthers case was “the result of anger on the part of acting political appointees and other attorneys.” That anger arose from a “deep-seated opposition to the equal enforcement of the Voting Rights Act against racial minorities.” The testimony shows that Obama political appointee Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes specifically ordered a policy of ignoring violations of the voting rights laws. Efforts to obtain more evidence on this policy “have been met with extraordinary resistance by the Department.”

The report also summarizes the evidence on the refusal of the Justice Department to enforce important provisions of the National Voter Registration Act — provisions that require states to maintain and clean up their voter registration lists by removing ineligible voters. The Department has never specifically denied that Fernandes instituted such a policy. As the Commission says, the evidence raises “doubts as to whether officials within the current Civil Rights Division have unilaterally limited the types of cases the Division will enforce.”

The facts support Adams and Coates. The Obama administration has not brought a single case under the NVRA, and even dismissed a pending case that was filed during the Bush administration.

The evidence uncovered by the Commission, despite the lack of cooperation and active obstruction by the Justice Department, showcases:

… a Civil Rights Division at war with its core mission of guaranteeing equal protection of the laws for all Americans. … [Based on the testimony] the current conflicts extend beyond policy differences to encompass allegations of inappropriately selective enforcement of laws, harassment of dissenting employees, and alliance with outside interest groups, at odds with the rule of law.

The Commission’s report also makes plain the contempt the Justice Department shows for the rule of law, and its apparent belief that it does not have to comply with federal statutory requirements. It’s bad enough the Department refused to provide requested information and documents to the Commission despite a statutory mandate requiring the Department to “cooperate fully” with the Commission. But on top of that, it ignored legally issued subpoenas. As a former Justice Department lawyer, I can assure you that if an individual refused to comply with a Justice Department subpoena, the Department would do everything in its power to have that person jailed or found in contempt by a federal judge.

The Department even refused to provide the Commission with a log of the documents it was withholding, something that even a private party is absolutely entitled to when the Justice Department withholds evidence based on some asserted privilege. Of course, the Department did provide such a log to Judicial Watch. But that was only because Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit in federal court, and Justice could not risk being found in contempt by a federal judge. Justice had no such fear in the Commission’s investigation because the Commission must rely on the Justice Department to enforce its subpoena! As the Commission concluded, the Justice Department had “an inherent conflict of interest.”

This report was scheduled to be approved on October 29. But former Pelosi aide Michael Yaki, one of the Democratic commissioners, walked out of that meeting to kill the quorum. He held a press conference in the Commission’s hallway denouncing the report, continuing his efforts to help the Obama administration cover up its wrongdoing at the Justice Department. Sources tell me Yaki is maneuvering behind the scenes to convince President Obama to appoint him as the new chairman of the Civil Rights Commission when the current chairman’s term expires in December. Yaki seems to believe that helping the Obama administration bury the report of the Civil Rights Commission will help achieve partisan goals.

Hopefully, enough of the other commissioners will be at the November 19 meeting to maintain a quorum even if Yaki goes through his usual delaying tactics. And this report is not necessarily the end of this investigation. The new incoming majority in the House of Representatives should take over the investigation of the Civil Rights Division and the New Black Panther case through its oversight function. The Justice Department will have a much harder time defying Congress the way it ignored the Commission on Civil Rights.

Hans A. von Spakovsky is a Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org) and a former commissioner on the Federal Election Commission.

[tutstar]

bump

[Jerrybob]

That's real nice of the Civil Rights Commission; I'd like to know, though, when Eric Holder is going to be led away in handcuffs and tried for treason.

I'm serious here, folks. We need to pressure the new Congress (in January) to take some really bold steps. They need to have hearings with Eric Holder testifying under oath and then have him hauled away in handcuffs.

I wonder if the MSM would cover that....

[jazusamo]

From subtitle:

(Full Report Due Tomorrow)

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is set to consider a draft report of its investigation tomorrow. Some details of the report have been leaked to PJM.

[mojito]

It’s been a good week for Holder and his master. Couldn’t happen to a nicer pair.

Too bad for Eric that he doesn’t get to jet off to Europe to escape the heat.

[jazusamo]

There’s no doubt that Rep. Issa will be heading an investigation of Holder and the DOJ, it may in fact be the first one.

The enemedia may be shamed into covering it but it’s not assured.

[kcvl]

Mark Kappelhoff (right) the “career” chief of the Criminal Section and a former ACLU lawyer, Julie Fernandes (middle)

Besides being a big contributor to Democratic candidates like Barack Obama and John Kerry, as well as the DNC, Kappelhoff was considered such a liberal loyalist that he was moved into the political position of chief of staff to the acting assistant attorney general for civil rights by the Obama transition team almost as soon as they came in the door.

Mark Kappelhoff, a former counsel for the liberal American Civil Liberties Union, to head the division's Criminal Section, and to the promotion of Chris Coates, a former ACLU voting counsel, to serve as the top deputy chief of the voting section.

******

Mark Kappelhoff, chief of the Criminal Section of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, discussed the current state of federal and state hate crimes prosecutions at a talk sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Law.

You may think, ‘Why do we have to prosecute hate crimes in the United States? Is it a problem?’ Well, the answer is yes,” Kappelhoff said. “In 2007, there were over 7,600 hate crimes in the United States. That turns out to be about one instance per hour for the entire year. And that number has been very consistent for the last decade.”

He also said his office sees spikes in hate crimes based on what’s going on in the news. There was an explosion of crimes against Muslim Americans after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and a small spike of crimes targeted toward African-Americans during the recent presidential election.

He is a LIAR!

There is an explosion of hate crimes AGAINST Americans, especially MILITARY, by so-called converted Muslims like Fort Hood, Texas, National Guard, Little Rock, Arkansas where people were MURDERED!

[kcvl]

I don’t really want a lecture on race by this A-Hole...

Mark Kappelhoff, chief of the Criminal Section of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division

Kappelhoff also discussed a proposed hate crime statute called the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. If passed, Kappelhoff said it will make two key improvements to hate crime law by expanding the groups protected to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identification and disability. It also eliminates the requirement that prosecutors prove that a hate crime was motivated by the victim’s participation in federally protected activities.

He also discussed prevention, which he said should be a major element of addressing hate crime, along with prosecution and providing victim services.

“Unfortunately by the time a case comes to me or my office, there’s already a victim out there — someone who has been killed or beaten or threatened,” he said. “Prosecution isn’t the answer. We need other ways to address hate. Prevention is the answer. Just talking about race is a serious step toward prevention.”

[snowrip]

When are the people who broke the law again and again and again going to be sent to prison... which is where they frigging well belong?

[jazusamo]

There is an explosion of hate crimes AGAINST Americans, especially MILITARY, by so-called converted Muslims like Fort Hood, Texas, National Guard, Little Rock, Arkansas where people were MURDERED!

Amen to that!

Hopefully the House investigation will put Holder, this Kappelhoff, Thomas Perez and Julie Fernandes in an unemployment line.

Thanks for your post.

[devistate one four]

mega ditto’s!

[jazusamo]

Agreed, prison is where some of them belong.

[bronxville]

The Black Panthers was probably ordered to be there but the plan backfired because the astute guy got it on tape. Holder is also under orders and will be protected.

[DefeatCorruption]

Just another nail in the proverbial coffin.

[tutstar]

we have been taken over

[bronxville]

I’m relieved to see another who gets it. :) .