Obama Team Push Back on McCain-Palin ‘Voter Fraud’ Tactics

BY TAYLOR MARSH

BREAKING… Obama Campaign General Counsel Hold Media Call on Major Action over Sham “Anti-Fraud” Campaign Orchestrated By McCain-Palin and the RNC

In the debate this week, John McCain attacked ACORN, which was expected. What
was not was McCain’s assertion that they were “destroying the fabric of
democracy.” When he said it all I could think was Wow, they’re going
to try to do it again. (Their first attempt failed in Ohio.)

The very next day, sources at the Justice Department leaked to the AP that
the F.B.I. was investigating ACORN. Well, isn’t that a coincidence?

Hardly. It’s called a set up to what Republicans want to do election day. Make
voters believe the integrity of our voting system is at risk, while also likely
amping up the presence of people at the polls who will intimidate voters.

The Obama-Biden team are having none of it. General
Counsel Bob Bauer sent a strong letter today, which he outlined in a media
call that ended at the top of this hour. We’ve put together parts of it below:

Dear Attorney General Mukasy and Special Prosecutor Dannehy: I write about recent and serious developments with a direct bearing on the matters before the Special Prosecutor Nora Dannehy, appointed by the Attorney General to investigate, among other things, the commission of prosecutable criminal offenses associated with the removal of U.S. Attorneys or the testimony of any witness related to these Attorney removals. The Dannehy investigation concerns, most fundamentally, abuse of the law enforcement process to advance, in the name of combating “voting fraud”, a partisan political agenda. The appointment of a Special Prosecutor was required beause the Department’s leadership was the focus of the investigation and unable to credibly undertake an independent, professional and credible inquiry. Now, on the emerging evidence of recent conduct undertaken by Bush Administration officials, Republicans Party officials, and representatives of the McCain-Palin campaign, it appears that further misconduct of the same nature, directly relevant to the work of the Special Prosecutor, requires that the scope of the Special Prosecutor’s assignment be expanded. Accordingly, I request that Special Prosecutor Dannehy’s inquiry include a review of any involvement by Justic Department and White House officials in supporting the McCain-Palin campaign and the Republican National Committee (“RNC”)’s systematic development and dissemination of unsupported, spurious allegations of vote fraud. It is highly likely that the very sort of politically motivated conduct identified in the Department’s investigation to date, necessitating the appointment of a Special Prosecutor, is repeating itself, and for the same reason: unwarranted and political motivated intervention in the upcoming election. An investigation must be entrusted to government officials who do not have an improper political motivation or a conflict of interest, either in fact or appearance. I. Background: The Department’s Ongoing Investigation Establishes The Connection Between Bogus Claims of Vote Fraud and the Firing of U.S. Attorneys. The Special Prosecutor’s appointment stems, of course, from the September 29, 2008 Report of an Investigation and into the Removal of Nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006 (“DOJ Report”), authored by the Justice Department’s Offices of Inspector General and Professional Responsibility. The DOJ Report concluded that “the process the Department used to select the U.S. Attorneys for removal was flawed.” DOJ Report at 325. According to the Report, “[t]he most serious allegations that arose were that the U.S. Attorneys were removed based on improper political factors, including to affect the way they handled certain voter fraud or public corruption investigations and prosecutions.” Id. (emphasis added). In particular, the DOJ Report concluded that “[t]he most troubling example was David Iglesias, the U.S. Attorney in New Mexico,” as “complaints from New Mexico Republican politicians and party activities about Iglesias’s handling of voter fraud and public corruption cases caused hihs removal.” Id. at 326. As the Report observed, these and other actions “severely damaged the credibility of the Department and raised doubts about the integrity of Department prosecutive decisions.” Id. at 358. As detailed in the following Section, recent activities by Republican Party officials and operatives nationwide are of precisely the same kind as the activities that led to the improper firings of U.S. Attorneys as concluded by the DOJ Report and as referred to the Special Prosecutor for further investigation. The current stage of improper Republican activity must be understood, first and most fundamentally, in context of years of concerted partisan activities to use bogus claims of “vote fraud” to suppress voting and to influence elections in the eleventh hour by pressuring federal and local officials — including the Justice Department — to investigate and prosecute allegations of vote fraud where none exists. In 2002, then-Attorney General Ashcroft created the Voting Access and Integrity Initiative, in which federal officials including U.S. Attorneys were to work with state officials to combat vote fraud. This marked the beginning of an era of intensified commitment by certain Republican officials and operatives nationwide, acting in concert with the Department of Justice, in the generation of “vote fraud” claims serving a partisan political purpose. At no time was credible support given for the assertions of widespread fraud, or for the commitment of substantial resources to this initiative. {……} As Mr. Iglesias has since made clear, the “vote fraud” that Republican officials and operatives were pressuring him to investigate and prosecute did not exist. According to Mr. Iglesias: “After an exhaustive examination of the fats, I felt that I had dispelled the phantoms of voter fraud in New Mexico.” … .. … II. Current Bogus Claims of Vote Fraud and the McCain-Palin Campaign’s Attempts to Involve U.S. Attorneys and the Department of Justice… .. {…}

The letter continues from there, but here’s the bottom line:

III. Requested Action The conduct described in this letter is directly relevant to the scope of the Special Prosecutor’s investigation. In light of the impending election, it is imperative that an impartial investigator safeguard both the democratic and prosecutorial process. Accordingly, I call on you and Special Counsel Dannehy to expand her investigation to include these matters, all of them entirely consistent with the pattern of misconduct already within her charge. Once is more than enough. The Department has yet to recover its credibility after the calamitous politicization of its mission in this Administration and the documented misconduct, now being investigated by Special Prosecutor Dannehy, that resulted from the corrupt injection of politics into federal law enforcement. Only by providing for a thorough, independent and immediate review, can the Department demonstrate that it will not countenance a recurrence of those evetns of the last years that severely stained its reputation and corrupted, for partisan political gain, the impartial administration of our laws. I request a meeting with you to determin whether we can expect action consistent with this request … ..

The letter also references TPM’s
interview with David Iglesias.

Remember Florida in 2000.

Remember Ohio in 2004.

Remember the history of Republicans suppressing the vote.

The Obama-Biden team have every reason to take this current uptick in “voter fraud” attacks — PA lawsuit just filed by GOP — deadly serious. It could cost us the White House… again.