Barack Obama

Leak On Obama's Aunt Violates Agency Regulations

Zachary Roth | November 1, 2008, 5:46PM

The leaking of information about the immigration status of Barack Obama's aunt appears to directly violate regulations for confidentiality laid out in a US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) memo obtained by TPMmuckraker.

As we reported earlier, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (which is the law enforcement arm of USCIS) has begun an internal probe into the leak to the Associated Press, which revealed early this morning that Obama's aunt "is in the United States illegally after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years ago."

The memo, written in 2005 by Joseph Langlois, director of the Asylum Division in the Office of Refugee, Asylum, and International Operations, reads in part:

The federal regulations at 8 CFR 208.6 generally prohibit the disclosure to third parties of information contained in or pertaining to asylum applications, credible fear determinations, and reasonable fear determinations--including information contained in RAPS or APSS1--except under certain limited circumstances. These regulations safeguard information that, if disclosed publicly, could subject the claimant to retaliatory measures by government authorities or non-state actors in the event that the claimant is repatriated, or endanger the security of the claimant's family members who may still be residing in the country of origin.

...

According to established guidance, confidentiality is breached when information contained in or pertaining to an asylum application (including information contained in RAPS or APSS) is disclosed to a third party in violation of the regulations, and the unauthorized disclosure is of a nature that allows the third party to link the identity of the applicant to: (1) the fact that the applicant has applied for asylum; (2) specific facts or allegations pertaining to the individual asylum claim contained in an asylum application; or (3) facts or allegations that are sufficient to give rise to a reasonable inference that the applicant has applied for asylum.

It's worth noting again that we don't know for certain the leak came from ICE, since people at other government agenicies could have had access to the information.

Still, from the available evidence, it appears ICE is the most likely source. And Dan Kowalski, a leading immigration law expert, told TPMmuckraker that there's "no question" the leak violated ICE's guidelines as laid out in the memo.

And he identified for TPMmuckraker some additional, pertinent questions, asking:

1. Did the leaker know it was a violation? 2. Was the leak politically motivated? 3. A solo action, or conspiracy of 2 or more? If the latter, who is the boss?

We'll be working to bring you answers...

Voting

Georgia's Secretary of State Promotes Voter Challenges and Refuses to Extend Early Voting Hours

Kate Klonick | November 1, 2008, 5:04PM

Add Georgia to the list of states where Republican officials are actively engaged in voter suppression efforts.

In the midst of a record turnout for early voting in Georgia, that has led to long lines, discouraged voters and exhausted poll workers, Secretary of State Karen Handel, a Republican, has claimed federal law ties her hands, preventing her from extending early voting hours.

With just days to go to the election, Democratic politicians demanded yesterday that Handel step in and extend early voting hours -- as has been done in both North Carolina and Florida.

But in an opinion piece published in the AJC on Thursday, Handel blamed her inaction on the issue on federal law which requires Justice Department approval to change voting law.

Ironically, it is Georgia's history of discriminatory voting practices that puts it on a federal "pre-clearance" list, mentioned in Section 5 of the Voter Rights Act of 1965.

While the DOJ can take up to 60 days to review any change that is submitted, it has the power to grant expedited review in emergency situations -- and Georgia's situation would certainly seem to qualify, Gerry Hebert, a former acting head of DOJ's voting-rights section, told TPMmuckraker.

"Georgia has asked and been granted expedited review by the DOJ in the past, so to say because of the voting act, we can't do this -- that's not really accurate," Hebert said. "The DOJ has done this in as little as 24 hours. . . so to use Section 5 as an excuse that this isn't possible, that's someone that really doesn't want to make the change."

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Democrat, issued a statement yesterday that he was writing Attorney General Michael Mukasey urging him to grant expedited review, when -- or if -- it was asked for by Handel.

This isn't Handel's first brush with voter suppression charges. Early last month, voter rights groups brought a suit against Handel after she threatened to purge over 4,500 voters from the rolls because their citizenship had been questioned.

This Tuesday, a panel of federal judges said the 4,500 plus flagged voters must be given ballots -- and that Handel must "make diligent and immediate efforts" to inform those voters that had been challenged.

In compliance with the decision, Handel sent out letters to flagged voters yesterday, telling them they could still vote on election day but with a "challenged" paper ballot.

Handel, however, has reacted to the judges' decision by turning to ordinary Georgians to continue her voter suppression campaign by proxy.

As first noted by the blog, Facing South, in an interview Wednesday with the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Handel took pains to remind voters that any voter can challenge another's qualifications to cast a ballot by notifying a precinct poll manager. According to Handel, that voter then would be given a challenge ballot and would have to go before the election board.

ACORN

ICE Probing Leak On Obama's Aunt

Zachary Roth | November 1, 2008, 5:01PM

Via Ben Smith, a statement from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, on the leak to the Associated Press of immigration information about Obama's aunt.

Early this morning, the matter was refered (sic) to Inspector General and ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility for action. They are looking into whether there was a violation of policy in publicly disclosing individual case information.

We also learned earlier today that internal Justice Department investigators are looking into the leaking of information, earlier this month, about a nationwide FBI probe of ACORN.

To be clear, though ICE appears to be the most likely source of the leak about Obama's aunt, we don't know with 100 percent certainty that that's where it came from. The Associated Press attributed its report to two sources, "one of them a federal law enforcment official." According to Dan Kowalski, an immigration law expert and the editor of the the online newsletter, Benders Immigration Bulletin,, the information would have been available to people at several government agencies, both at the Department of Homeland Security (of which ICE is a part) and the Department of Justice, which would have an enforcement role in immigration proceedings.

Alaska

Stevens' Law License in Limbo

Kate Klonick | November 1, 2008, 1:11PM

The Alaska Bar Association has sought a suspension on Sen. Ted Stevens law license, pending completion of his appeals.

Stevens has claimed that he's not a convicted felon until his appeals are complete, but by state bar association rules, a felony conviction is effective as soon as the jury rules, association counsel Steve Van Goor told the Anchorage Daily News.

From the ADN:

There's no deadline by which the Supreme Court has to decide such a license challenge, said chief deputy court clerk Lori Wade. Stevens has a right to file legal memoranda in his defense.

. . .Any final decision on Stevens' license would wait until his appeals have been finished.

Stevens is not actively practicing law in Alaska now, Van Goor said.

Department of Homeland Security

Conyers on Obama Aunt Leak: "Very Disturbing"

Zachary Roth | November 1, 2008, 12:54PM

Rep. John Conyers, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has responded to the Bush administration's leak of information on the immigration status of Obama's aunt.

In a hastily written letter, Conyers makes the same connection that we did with the administration's leaking of information on the FBI's nationwide investigation of ACORN. Both leaks went to the Associated Press, and appear to have been done for political purposes.

There's some other news in the letter in regard to that leak about ACORN. Conyers writes:

[I]n recent weeks law enforcement sources leaked information about an alleged investigation of a community services organization, a leak that the Department of Justice informs me is now under investigation by the Department's Office of the Inspector General and Professional Responsibility.

So, two internal DOJ offices are looking into the ACORN leak. That's certainly worth keeping an eye on.

The full text of the letter follows after the jump...

Read more »

Barack Obama

The Anatomy of a Smear

Zachary Roth | November 1, 2008, 11:40AM

Here's how the right's big eleventh-hour smear on Obama was carried out.

First the Murdoch-owned Times of London reported Thursday that Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, is living in a Boston public-housing complex. It's unclear how the paper learned of the woman's presence in the U.S.

From there, the story quickly got taken up by the right-wing echo chamber. Fox News (also Murdoch-owned, of course), Drudge, the Boston Herald, and various conservative blogs -- as well as some mainstream outlets -- began breathlessly hyping the story.

But the Times had been unable to tie up one key detail. It reported:

The Times could not determine their immigration status and an official at Boston City Hall said that Ms Onyango was a resident of Flaherty Way but not registered to vote on the electoral roll. However, that Ms Onyango made a contribution to the Obama campaign would indicate that she is a US citizen.

But that was easily taken care of. The Associated Press was the first to confirm, in a story posted this morning, that Onyango is here illegally after her request for asylum was rejected by an immigration judge four years ago.

But note the way in which AP seems to have obtained the information. High up in the story, it reports:

Information about the deportation case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one a federal law enforcement official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release.

In other words, it looks like someone in the Bush administration leaked the information, with the goal of throwing a last-minute wrench into Obama's campaign. And someone else confirmed it, with similar motives.

On the record, of course, the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, is telling reporters it can't comment on any individual person's immigration status. It would appear to be a violation of department procedures, at the least, to leak such information.

We've seen this same tactic used recently by the Bush administration. Earlier this month, law enforcement sources leaked the news, also to the AP, that the FBI has begun a nationwide investigation into ACORN. Again, the obvious purpose of the leak was political -- to bolster a Republican campaign to stoke fears about voter fraud, in an effort to de-legitimize an Obama win. The Justice Department still has not confirmed the existence of the investigation.

Voting

Von Spakovsky: 1982 Feels Just Like Yesterday

Kate Klonick | October 31, 2008, 6:48PM

Rick Hasen over at Election Law Blog has a great find from a recent FOX News opinion piece written by legendary voter suppression guru Hans von Spakovsky:

One doesn't have to look far to find instances of fraudulent ballots cast in actual elections by 'voters' who were the figments of active imaginations. In 1984, a district attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y. (a Democrat), released the findings of a grand jury that reported extensive registration and impersonation fraud between 1968 and 1982.

Other things that happened in 1982:

• The end of commercial whaling

• The first compact discs -- commonly known as CDs -- are released in Germany

• The Double Stuf Oreo goes on sale.

• The Dow hits an all-time high of 1,065.49.

• Michael Jackson releases Thriller.

• Time's "Man of the Year" is given to the first non-human: The Computer.

Voting

Colorado's Secretary of State Goes Rogue

Kate Klonick | October 31, 2008, 6:30PM

Despite just reaching a settlement with voter rights groups on Wednesday, Colorado's Secretary of State Mike Coffman has continued to purge voters from the roll, causing a judge to issue a cease and desist order.

Earlier today, Coffman told the Rocky Mountain News that the settlement "still allowed him to remove voters from the state rolls when he found duplicate names, people who moved or deceased voters." An interpretation voter rights groups have roundly dismissed.

"The Court unambiguously stated that Colorado's voter cancellation practices violated federal law," Myrna Perez counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice -- a party in the suit -- told TPMmuckraker. "The Secretary of State and Colorado counties must provide the agreed upon safeguards to protect the voters adversely affected by the illegal practices."

The suit against Coffman alleged that more than 35,000 voters were purged from the rolls based on a faulty system for identifying illegitimate voters, and within 90 days of the election -- both of which violate the federal Voting Rights Act. The settlement allowed for 20,000 purged voters to be put back on the rolls and cast provisional ballots in Tuesday's election.

ACORN

Von Spakovsky and Co. Urge DOJ To Keep Probing Voter Fraud

Zachary Roth | October 31, 2008, 6:15PM

Five ex-DOJ officials have written to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, urging him to keep investigating whether ACORN committed voter fraud in its registration efforts, Roll Call reports.

The group, led by leading voting-rights foe Hans Von Spakovsky, wrote:

"We hope that you will assure the American people that your Department intends to investigate and prosecute any and all instances of voter registration and other fraud occurring in the days leading up to the election, and that you will enforce all of the federal voting rights laws that are important to preserving the fairness and security of the election process..."

The other members of the group, according to Roll Call, are Former Assistant Attorney General William Bradford Reynolds and former Deputy Assistant Attorneys General Roger Clegg, Michael Carvin and Robert Driscoll.

Earlier this month, sources leaked to the Associated Press that the FBI had launched a naitonwide investigation into ACORN. Since then, few details about the probe have emerged. DOJ has declined to confirm its existence on the record, and ACORN recently said it had not been contacted in connection to the investigation.

Von Spakovsky was nominated for a seat on the Federal Elections Commission last year, but the Democratic Senate refused to confirm him. TPMmuckraker reported in August that he had been given a temporary appointment at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Voting

Conyers To Boehner: Enough With The Voter Fraud!

Zachary Roth | October 31, 2008, 5:51PM

House Judiciary Chair John Conyers has released a statement in response to Republican leader John Boehner's various recent efforts to get the Justice Department to pay more attention to voter fraud, despite scant evidence of such fraud.

Writes Conyers:

This endless campaign to press the Department into pursuing phantom claims of 'voter fraud' must end. So-called "voter fraud" is vanishingly rare and every time this subject is given a careful look it is found to have essentially no concrete impact in our elections. Indeed, according to Justice Department data, out of almost 200 million votes cast in federal elections since October 2002, only 102 individuals have been convicted of federal voter fraud offenses. Thus, Republican agitation on this issue is both unnecessary and costly, as Department resources are needed to combat serious matters of voter suppression. Fliers distributed in Virginia this week using state letterhead to mislead Democrats and Independents about the date of the election and recent reports of violence and intimidation against citizens working to register and turnout voters are real-world problems that directly impact citizens' right to vote. It is also disconcerting to see Members of Congress criticizing career personnel of the Department for their private political activity, which intrudes deeply upon their privacy and appears to have no bearing on their job performance.

Voting

Feingold Weighs in on WI AG's Plans for Prosecutor Poll Watchers

Kate Klonick | October 31, 2008, 5:11PM

Wisconin's junior senator, Russ Feingold, joined the fray over Attorney Gen. J.B. Van Hollen's announcement this week that he would be sending 50 state prosecutors and agents to polls to protect against voter fraud.

"[T]he announcement and execution of your plans may have the effect of discouraging legitimate voters from attempting to cast their votes, and I urge you to reconsider your decision," Feingold wrote in a letter to Van Hollen published by the Capital Times. "I also encourage you to ensure that criminal law enforcement personnel are not deployed at polling stations."

Calling it "widely acknowledged" that law enforcement personnel can lead to intimidated and discouraged voters, Feingold asked for Van Hollen to provide detailed information about how DOJ employees will be deployed.

Yesterday, Gov. Jim Doyle called Van Hollen's poll watchers an "obvious Republican strategy." Last week, a court threw out a suit by Van Hollen that would have called for additional checks of voter registrations.

But Van Hollen doesn't seem to be fazed by these setbacks and detractors. The GOP AG sent a letter Wednesday asking chief district court judges across the state to alert him on Election Day in case he has to "initiate emergency election-related proceedings."

Michael Mukasey

DOJ's List Of Counties For Election-Day Monitoring Looks On The Level

Zachary Roth | October 31, 2008, 5:01PM

As we noted earlier, the Department of Justice yesterday released a list of counties across the country to which it will send teams of federal observers to monitor polling places, as it does every election year.

Given DOJ's mixed record in recent years in protecting voting rights, and its efforts to push voter fraud cases despite a lack of evidence, we asked some experts whether the list of sites selected seemed appropriate.

Both Gerry Hebert, a former acting head of DOJ's voting-rights section, and Rick Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and a leading authority on voting law, said that it did.

Hebert, however, questioned the decision to send monitors to Noxubee and Wilkinson counties in Mississippi.

Hebert noted in an email to TPMmuckraker that in Noxubee, DOJ brought a controversial, though ultimately successful, suit on behalf of white voters in 2006, representing the first time that the Voting Rights Act had been used on behalf of whites.

"What interest would they have in sending federal observers now,?" Hebert asked.

As for Wilkinson county, Hebert wrote: "It's hard to see why DOJ would send poll watchers to a county where the issues seem to be among two factions of black voters and not alleged discrimination by whites."

Still, these concerns aside, it sounds like there's little reason to believe that DOJ's list skews inappropriately toward making hay out of swing-state voter-fraud claims at the expense of a focus on voter intimidation.

The complete list follows after the jump...

Read more »

voter fraud

Another Court Rejects GOP Bid To Shut Down Indiana Early-Voting Sites

Zachary Roth | October 31, 2008, 4:33PM

The Indiana Republican Party just lost what looks like its last chance to shut down early voting centers in three heavily Democratic cities in Lake County.

A state appeals court judge has ruled, as expected, that the centers can stay open -- backing an earlier ruling by a county court.

County Republicans had sued to shut down the centers, arguing that a unanimous vote - rather than a simple majority -- of the county election board was required to open them.

The centers at issue are located in the cities of East Chicago, Gary, and Hammond, all of which are heavily Democratic, and crucial to Barack Obama's hopes of victory in the state.

Early voting has been proceeding at the centers for the last few weeks.

Voting

Boehner: DOJ Politicized ... In Favor of Dems!

Zachary Roth | October 31, 2008, 3:41PM

At last, a high-ranking Republican has admitted what many Democrats and independent observers have maintained since the scandal over the US Attorney firings -- that, under President Bush, the Department of Justice has been inappropriately politicized.

But according to John Boehner, the House GOP leader, that politicization was actually carried out ... by Democrats.

Boehner today released a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, in which he complained about the department's decision no longer to include federal prosecutors in its teams of election observers, as it has done in previous years.

He also cited recent reports that some top officials in the department's voting-rights section had contributed to Barack Obama's campaign.

Writes Boehner:

Frankly, the real motive behind the Department's decision is undeniably suspect given that Obama partisans in key positions at the Department of Justice may well have played a pivotal role in making it.

Earlier this week, DOJ announced that it would decline a request by Boehner -- forwarded by the White House -- to intervene in a voting dispute in Ohio, on behalf of state Republicans.

Yesterday, the department released a list of the polling places to which it will send its team of observers. We'll have more on that shortly.

Boehner's full letter follows after the jump...

Read more »

Alaska

Alaska is a State of Denial

Kate Klonick | October 31, 2008, 2:30PM

Sen. Ted Stevens: Convicted or not convicted? That is the question.

And apparently one whose answer changes depending on who you ask.

In most people's minds, there's little to argue. On Monday, a jury returned a verdict of guilty on all seven counts of false statements. The charges against Stevens were felonies, making the senator -- by most counts -- a convicted felon.

But Stevens, back in Alaska campaigning for his eighth term in the Senate, met his opponent, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, in a debate last night and denied that he had been convicted at all.

"I'm not gonna step down. I have not been convicted," the 84 year-old senator stammered. "I have got a case pending against me. And probably the worst case of prosecutorial. . . misconduct by the prosecutors."

It might be worth noting that Stevens has a history of denial.

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

Matt Berman | October 31, 2008, 10:00AM

A lawsuit was filed Thursday by a Texas businessman who claims he was forced to funnel $75,000 in secret payments to Sen. Norm Coleman's (R-MN) wife, Laurie Coleman. The businessman, Paul McKim, filed suit against ardent Coleman supporter Nasser Kazeminy, who owns nearly half of McKim's oil-rig company. Sen. Coleman is in a tight race for re-election with Al Franken. (Politico)

It was all trick and no treat for embattled Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons (R), who issued an official statement yesterday that he would be hosting Sarah Palins' parents at the governor's mansion for Halloween. The scandal ridden Gibbons has thus far been snubbed by the McCain campain -- a trend that looks to be continuing. Unfortunately for Gibbons, the McCain campaign denied that Palins' parents would be attending. (Las Vegas Sun)

Newly filed court documents give details of former VECO CEO Bill Allen's first interview with the FBI in August, 2006. The documents show that Allen gave favors to two former state reps. and a state sen. who may or may not be under investigation. Allen, who was the linchpin in Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-AK) conviction, however, said that Rep. Don Young (R-AK) could not be bought. (Anchorage Daily News)

Read more »

ACORN

Penn Judge Rejects GOP Suppression Bid

Zachary Roth | October 31, 2008, 9:21AM

Add Pennsylvania to the list of states where GOP voter suppression efforts are going down in flames.

A state judge yesterday declined to support a grab-bag of a lawsuit filed by the party, which had sought to require ACORN both to turn over a list of the 140,000 voters it says it has registered, which could have made it easier for the GOP to challenge voters at the polls.

The suit also sought, among other things, to force ACORN air public-service announcements reminding first-time voters that they must bring identification to the polls, and to compel the state to provide more provisional ballots.

According to the Associated Press, the judge, Robert Simpson Jr., said "he was not convinced that the party and its fellow individual plaintiffs can ultimately prove their allegations that ACORN is fostering voter-registration fraud and that the state's election system lacks the safeguards to stop it."

Another one, apparently, bites the dust.

BMW

Honeycutt Gives Georgia Dem a Run for His Money

Kate Klonick | October 30, 2008, 6:44PM

Remember Deborah Honeycutt? The little-known Republican running for Congress in a Democratic stronghold down in Georgia who used a shady direct-mail company to raise national money for her long-shot candidacy?

Well, Honeycutt -- who lost by 38 points last time around -- is giving Democratic incumbent David Scott a little run for his money.

CQ Politics today changed the race from "Safe Democrat" to "Democrat Favored" after recent polls gave Scott just a five point lead over Honeycutt.

And there seem to be a few familiar factors at work in Honeycutt's rise in this heavily Democratic district.

Scott's campaign alleges that Honeycutt is concealing her party affiliation -- she fails to identify as Republican on her literature and some of her mailers reportedly bear the name "Democrats for Good Government," though Honeycutt denies knowledge of the group -- causing voters to mistake her for a Democrat.

Second and perhaps, most familiarly, Democrats point to her high fundraising numbers. Despite running as a virtual unknown, she's raised $4.7 million through Oct. 15 -- a staggering number compared to Scott's $1 million.

But unlike Scott, Honeycutt has raised her money primarily through direct mail company BMW Direct which gobbles up most of the proceeds in fees. When we wrote about her in July, Honeycutt had raised $1 million in the second quarter -- and spent $736,000 in fees to BMW Direct. The real surprise here is that Honeycutt has manged to do anything with a campaign that's burning through such huge portions of its donations.

House Judiciary

Conyers Wants DOJ Action On Virginia Flier

Zachary Roth | October 30, 2008, 5:30PM

The phony flier that surfaced recently in Virginia, instructing Democrats to vote on Wednesday November 5th, has drawn the attention of House Judiciary Chair John Conyers.

As we wrote Monday, the flier, which surfaced in largely African-American areas of the Hampton Roads region, is designed to look like an official communication from the state board of elections, even reproducing the board's logo. It informs readers that becasue of expected high turnout on election day, November 4th, Democrats have been asked to vote November 5th.

Election day, of course, is November 4th for everyone.

Conyers wrote to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, asking him to take action. Conyer's letter points out that, because there are legitimate concerns in Virginia about over-crowded polling places, and because the flier is designed to look like it comes from the state election board, it "has enough of a ring of truth to confuse voters and suppress turnout."

The letter goes on to call the effort "an echo of the darkest days of our struggle for civil rights."

Virginia election officials have said that state police are already looking into the flier's provenance.

Voting

WI Gov: AG's Poll Watchers are "Obvious Republican Strategy"

Kate Klonick | October 30, 2008, 4:55PM

Wisconsin's Governor Jim Doyle called out Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's latest attempt at voter suppression as an "obvious Republican strategy."

Earlier this week, Van Hollen -- a Republican -- announced that he would be sending more than 50 state prosecutors and law enforcement agents to monitor polls on Election Day.

From the AP:

Governor Doyle says the attorney general has no authority to supervise elections in Wisconsin and questions what power the special agents would have if they observe a problem.

The governor says the plan is part of an "obvious Republican strategy" to raise questions about the validity of the vote.

Alaska

Stevens Does the 'Convicted Felon' Shuffle In Welcome Home Celebration in AK

Kate Klonick | October 30, 2008, 4:35PM

Even though he's now a convicted felon, Sen. Ted Stevens is not without friends.

The so called "Lion of Alaska," returned home yesterday to a rally in his honor in the airport that bears his name.

Approximately 500 supporters greeted Stevens with the chant "We trust you," Anchorage Daily News reported.

Some attendees wore shirts bearing the slogan, "F*#@ the feds, vote for Ted."

"Anyone who thinks you can get a fair trial in the heart of liberalism, Washington, D.C., is smoking dope. He was railroaded," Mark Kelliher, a retired engineer told the ADN expressing the distrust many Alaskans place in "outsiders," or non-Alaskans.

Members of Alaska's political elite also attended, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who urged the crowd to get friends to work and vote for Stevens and joined the elder senator in a little jig on stage.

We're not sure, but we think this might rival the biker gang escort Stevens got when he returned to Alaska after his indictment this August.

More pictures from the rally after the jump.

Read more »

Voting

Rogers Denies Breaking Law, But Not Hiring P.I.

Zachary Roth | October 30, 2008, 4:19PM

We're late to this, but Pat Rogers -- the lawyer tied to the New Mexico GOP, who has been accused in a federal lawsuit of being behind a plan to intimidate voters -- has denied that he broke the law.

"I have not violated any law and Mr. Romero has not violated any law," Rogers said yesterday evening when reached by the Associated Press.

Rogers was referring to Al Romero, a private investigator. According to a lawsuit filed earlier this week by MALDEF, a group that advocates for the rights of Hispanics, Romero went to the homes of several Hispanic voters in Albuquerque to question them about their right to vote. The daughter of one of the women has said that Romero told her he was working for Rogers.

The visits were reported last week by TPMmuckraker and others.

Speaking yesterday to the AP, Rogers continued: "The lawsuit contains serious accusations that have no basis in law or fact. The suit is filed and advertised before the upcoming election for obvious purposes." He did not elaborate.

It's noteworthy that Rogers did not deny hiring Romero to contact voters about their eligibility -- as he did not when asked last week by the New Mexico Independent.

Reached this afternoon by TPMmuckraker, Rogers declined to discuss the case, saying he was too busy working on the election.

Voting

GOP Voter Suppression: More Miss than Hit

Zachary Roth | October 30, 2008, 1:10PM

Yesterday we posted a quick round-up of the various voter-suppression schemes being pushed by Republicans in swing states around the country. And after looking at the list, one thing quickly becomes clear: most of the efforts have failed.

There's no one grand unifying theory for why that's true.

In some cases, the courts have rejected GOP efforts to make voting harder:

• In Indiana, for instance, a Superior Court judge declined to support a GOP bid to shut down early voting centers in Democratic-leaning cities in Lake County, and the state Supreme Court chose not to immediately intervene.

• In Wisconsin, a suit brought by Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen -- which he later admitted had been requested by the Republican Party -- seeking to force the state election board to re-confirm all newly registered voters was thrown out by a county court.

• In Michigan, a federal appeals court today blocked the Republican secretary of state, Terri Lynn Land, from throwing 5,500 newly registered voters off the rolls because their registration cards were returned as undeliverable, after voting-rights groups sued.

In other states, Democratic state officials or voting-rights advocates have held the line:

• In Nevada, Secretary of State Ross Miller denied a request from the state GOP to require voters to cast provisional ballots if they fixed mistakes in their voting information at the polls.

• In Colorado, a bid by Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman -- who himself is running for a seat in the U.S. House -- to purge 14,000 voters from the rolls was only partially successful. After voting-rights groups sued, a settlement was reached yesterday allowing the voters to cast provisional ballots. According to the Rocky Mountain News, those ballots would "be presumed to be valid unless state and county officials prove otherwise." A lawyer for the voting-rights groups called the deal "a win-win."

Read more »

Voting

Conservative Group Intimidating Voters in Minnesota?

Zachary Roth | October 30, 2008, 11:05AM

Here's what could be the latest Republican voter intimidation scheme:

Larry Johnson of St. Paul, Minnesota, says that he received a phone call from a woman who claimed to be from the secretary of state's office working on voter fraud, reports the Associated Press. The woman asked about his voting record, said Johnson.

In a sworn affidavit, Johnson said the woman then told him she was working with Jeff Davis, who runs a socially conservative group, Minnesota Majority, that has been stoking fears of voter fraud lately.

Mark Ritchie, the state's Democratic secretary of state, said he has asked county and federal prosecutors to look into the call as possible voter intimidation.

In a statement posted on Minnesota Majority's website, Davis denied the claims of intimidation, but admitted:

Minnesota Majority has been conducting research into what appear to be inconsistencies in Minnesota's voter rolls. Voters with apparent duplicate registration records have been contacted by Minnesota Majority volunteers with a simple request to confirm the accuracy of their voter registration information. We believe these research activities to be in complete compliance with all state and federal laws.

The Department of Justice is currently looking into claims of voter intimidation in New Mexico, allegedly engineered by a lawyer connected to the state Republican Party.

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

Kate Klonick | October 30, 2008, 9:51AM

Some stuff their bras with tissues, but for Massachusetts State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, it was hundred dollar bills. The scandal surrounding the Democratic lawmaker who was arrested and charged Tuesday with accepting $23,500 in bribes, has now expanded to include three Boston City Council members, the state senate president and several state liquor board officials. (ABC News)

Count one in the win column. Despite being a convicted felon, Sen. Ted Stevens will be allowed to vote in the election on Tuesday. (The Hill)

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) disputed the claims leveled by the Chicago Tribune yesterday, that he had received a loan of $200,000 from a real estate contractor, then urged the Chicago mayor to allow that developer to convert the Chicago West Side into a residential and commercial zone. Gutierrez called the transaction "fully disclosed and transparent" and stated that his role in the re-zoning was minimal. (Chicago Tribune)

Read more »

Voting

DOJ, Bucking White House, Won't Intervene in Ohio Voting Case

Zachary Roth | October 30, 2008, 9:09AM

Looks like the most high-profile of the various Republican voter-suppression schemes is faring no better than many of the others.

The New York Times reports that the Department of Justice will not require Ohio's Democratic secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner, to provide local election officials with lists of new voters who have mismatches in their registration information.

Late last week, in an unusual intervention, the White House had passed on a request by Republican House leader John Boehner that DOJ take action on the issue -- triggering outrage from voting-rights groups. But according to the Times:

The Justice Department has been in contact with Ohio election officials since early October and this week its lawyers determined they would not pursue litigation before the election, according to the sources familiar with the discussions.

Still, the Ohio Republicans are trying to make maximum political hay out of the dispute. They released a radio ad earlier this week accusing Brunner of "concealing evidence."

ACORN

Report: DOJ Lawyer Meets With ACLU On NM Voter Intimidation

Zachary Roth | October 29, 2008, 7:52PM

Earlier this evening, a Justice Department spokesman told TPMmuckraker that the department was looking into claims of voter intimidation in New Mexico, stemming from reports last week by us and other outlets that a lawyer tied to the state GOP had hired a private investigator to question Hispanics about their right to vote.

Now, the New Mexico Independent, which originally reported on the intimidation along with TPMmuckraker, adds some detail to that picture.

The news site reports:

An attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice met with a staff attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico today regarding reports of voter intimidation here, said a spokesperson for ACLU.

Before flying back to Washington, D.C., the attorney, who works in the voting section of DOJ's Civil Rights Division, picked up copies of the press packet handed out by state Republicans on Oct. 16.

That last sentence refers to a press conference held by the state Republican Party, at which it released the names of 10 voters it claimed had voted illegally in a Democratic primary in June. It was later established that the voters were in fact eligible. But relatives of two of those voters told TPMmuckraker and the New Mexico Independent that they had received intimidating visits from a private investigator apparently hired by Republican lawyer Pat Rogers.

ACLU filed suit on Monday against the state party, alleging that it illegally interfered with the individuals' right to vote.

And now it looks like the Justice Department is on the case.

ACORN

Republican Voter Suppression: A Guide

Kate Klonick and Zachary Roth | October 29, 2008, 7:19PM

There are so many Republican gambits designed to make voting more difficult -- specifically for Democrats, of course -- that it can be hard to keep track of them all. So here's a handy -- and by no means comprehensive -- guide to what's happening in some of the key swing states.

Ohio
The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month denied a bid by the state GOP to force Democratic secretary of state Jennifer Brunner to provide local election officials with lists of new voters whose registration information did not match that on other government documents. Voting-rights advocates had feared that making Brunner hand over the lists could lead to a slew of GOP challenges, forcing hundreds of thousands of voters to cast provisional ballots. Republican leader (and Ohioan) John Boehner -- with help from the White House -- has asked the Department of Justice to step in, but few observers expect DOJ to take any action so close to the election.

New Mexico
The state GOP earlier this month held a press conference at which it released the names of 10 voters it said had voted fraudulently in a Democratic primary in June. After ACORN helped established that the voters, almost all Hispanic, were in fact legitimate, TPMmuckraker and others reported that GOP lawyer Pat Rogers apparently hired a private investigator, who intimidated some of the voters by going to their homes to question them about their voting status. Rogers, the P.I. and the state party are now being sued for voter intimidation by several voting-rights groups.

Indiana
The Lake County GOP sued to shut down early voting centers set up by the county election board in Democratic-leaning cities in the northern part of the county. A judge declined to shut down the sites, though an appeal is scheduled to be heard later this week. But in the meantime, early voting at the centers has been proceeding. In addition, the Republican secretary of state, Todd Rokita, has called on law enforcement to prosecute ACORN for submitting 1400 suspicious-looking voter-registration forms in the county.

Nevada
The chair of the state GOP wrote to Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller, asking him to require newly registered voters to cast provisional ballots if they correct mismatches in their voter information at the polls. Miller responded with an interpretation of state law that rejected the GOP's request.

Pennsylvania
The state GOP has filed a lawsuit designed to cast doubt on 140,000 voter-registration applications submitted by ACORN in four counties. Among other things, it would require the state to provide additional provisional ballots in the counties at issue. Democratic Secretary of State pedro Cortes has called the "frivolous", saying it's designed to undermine confidence in the system. The court has not yet ruled on the suit.

Montana
The state GOP announced earlier this month that it was formally challenging the eligibility of 6,000 people in Democratic-leaning counties, based in discrepancies in their addresses. After it emerged that among the challenged voters were a World War II veteran who had moved across town that year, and a member of the Army Reserve about to ship out to Kuwait, the move was condemned even by some prominent Republicans in the state. The challenge was withdrawn, and the man behind, it, Jacob Eaton, the party's executive director, quit.

Florida
In early September, Secretary of State Kurt Browning, a Republican, instructed election officials to reject voter registration applications that do not pass a computer match test. Voter rights groups say the system can disqualify voters based on nothing more than a missing middle initial on their voter form, and that the late date of the order could cause additional confusion. They fear the move could disenfranchise tens of thousands of legitimate voters. And in a rare case of a Republican making voting easier, Governor Charlie Crist yesterday ordered extended hours for early voting centers, after long lines were reported in many parts of the state.

Wisconsin
Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen filed suit against the state's election board, demanding that it confirm the eligibility of tens of thousands of new voters. In a recent interview with CNN, Van Hollen admitted that the GOP "may have asked lawyers in my office to file the lawsuit." A county court threw the suit out, but Van Hollen soon announced the formation of a "voter fraud task force", which would involve stationing 50 state prosecutors and other law-enforcement agents at the polls on election day, a move state Democrats have denounced as an effort to intimidate voters.

Colorado
A voting-rights group, filed a lawsuit against Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman, alleging that over 35,000 voters were purged from the rolls illegally. The suit, which was heard in court today, claims that voters have been removed from the rolls based on a faulty system for identifying illegitimate voters, and within 90 days of the election -- both of which violate the federal Voting Rights Act. Coffman, who is running for the U.S. Congress in this election, denies that any rules were broken.

voter fraud

WI Dems Call AG's Poll Watchers Intimidation

Kate Klonick | October 29, 2008, 5:21PM

Last week, a Wisconsin county court threw out their attorney general's suit against the Government Accountability Board, seeking confirmation on thousands of voter registrations.

But AG J.B. Van Hollen is not going gently into this election night.

Van Hollen announced yesterday that he would be staffing Wisconsin's polls with more than 50 state attorneys and agents to guard against election fraud. He has also "formed a task force with Milwaukee prosecutors to tackle voter fraud cases."

Citing concern over voter fraud, the GOP often sends poll watchers to challenge voters and "gum up the works" at polling places.

Today, Wisconsin Democrats responded to Van Hollen in a statement today, calling him "so desperate to influence the election that he has resorted to sending state prosecutors to intimidate voters at the polls."

Joe Wineke, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, deemed Van Hollen's past actions "hyper-partisan" and charged the AG was pulling " agents away from their real jobs to investigate fabricated stories about widespread voter fraud."

voter fraud

DOJ Responds On N.M. Voter Intimidation Claims

Zachary Roth | October 29, 2008, 4:58PM

Last week, TPMmuckraker and others reported on an apparent voter intimidation effort launched by a lawyer tied to the New Mexico Republican Party -- which included hiring a private investigator to show up at the homes of Hispanics and question them about their right to vote.

On Friday, hours after our story appeared, Gerry Hebert -- a former top voting-rights official at the Department of Justice, who now runs the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center (and is a frequent TPMmuckraker source) -- forwarded the story, via email, to four current members of DOJ's civil-rights division, which enforces voting laws.

Hebert, who served 21 years at DOJ's civil-rights division, including a stint as acting head of the voting-rights section, wrote in his email, which was copied to TPMmuckraker*: "I believe this conduct, if true, violates both the criminal and civil statutes your offices enforce, and thus warrants investigation by DOJ." He asked the four recipients to acknowledge receipt of his email.

But this afternoon, five days later, Hebert told TPMmuckraker that he had received no response whatsoever.

The four officials to whom Hebert addressed his message were:
-Mark Kappelhoff, chief of the division's criminal section.
-Mark Blumberg, a deputy chief of the same section.
-Christopher Coates, chief of the division's voting-rights section.
-James Walsh, an attorney in the division.

Kappelhoff, Blumberg, and Walsh did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Department staff declined to connect TPMmuckraker to Coates directly.

The apparent lack of followup contrasts with DOJ's apparent quick action in launching an investigation into ACORN in connection with voter-fraud, according to an Associated Press report -- attributed to anonymous sources and as yet unconfirmed -- from earlier this month.

Hebert and several other voting experts told TPMmuckraker last week that the activities laid out in our report potentially constitute a violation of federal voting laws.

The ACLU and Project Vote on Monday filed suit against the New Mexico GOP, alleging voter intimidation. The same day, MALDEF, a group that advocates for the rights of Hispanics, filed a similar but separate suit, which names as defendants the GOP lawyer Pat Rogers and the private investigator Al Romero.

Kappelhoff and Walsh, at least, would appear to be unlikely participants in a DOJ scheme to stonewall legitimate voter intimidation complaints. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that both have contributed to Barack Obama's campaign.

Late Update: Scot Montrey, a spokesman for DOJ's civil-rights division, called TPMmuckraker to say: "The department is aware of the allegations and we're looking into them."

* This sentence has been corrected from an earlier version.

BMW

Murtha Challenger's Fundraising Is Less Than Meets The Eye

Kate Klonick and Zachary Roth | October 29, 2008, 3:30PM

Since Democratic Congressman John Murtha made the bone-headed move earlier this month of calling his constituents racists, the GOP has grown hopeful that it might pick up off his southwest Pennsylvania House seat.

The National Republican Campaign Committee last week spent $84,000 to run ads in support of Murtha's Republican challenger, William Russell. That prompted the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to go on the air today with an ad supporting Murtha -- one of the most prominent Democrats in the House, and a close ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

There's no doubt that Murtha's comments have given Russell an outside shot -- this week, the respected political analyst Charlie Cook moved the race into his "Likely Democratic" category, after having previously considered it a Democratic lock.

Perhaps most significantly, Russell appears to have been raking in campaign dollars. Over the weekend, the Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown, Penn breathlessly reported: "When it comes to raising money, political newcomer William Russell continues to outpace his opponent, longtime U.S. Rep. John Murtha."

But it may turn out to be a steeper climb for Russell than the GOP, or some in the press, know.

As we reported in July, Russell is a client of BMW Direct. That's the Republican consulting firm whose business model appears to consist of tapping national lists of GOP donors to raise a lot of money, via direct-mail appeals, for long-shot candidates (which is exactly what Russell was before Murtha's gaffe). Then, BMW charges the candidate nearly the sum total of what it raised, for expenses related to the fundraising effort itself.

For instance, we noted in July, based on FEC filings, that Russell had raised $669,534 from April through June. That's an impressive amount -- until you consider that, after paying expenses to BMW and its various affiliates, Russell came out only $27,431 ahead.

A new look at FEC records suggests that during the July-September quarter, Russell actually walked away with an impressive haul, even after BMW took its cut. But it also shows that he was still paying the firm an unually large amount for coordinating a fundraising appeal. In that quarter, Russell raised a total of $1,592,451, but paid BMW $585,834.33, leaving him with just over a million.

And in the first half of October, Russell raised $302,938, but after paying BMW and its affiliates, was left with $81,571.

In other words, since April, Russell has technically raised over $2.5 million. But after paying BMW Direct for helping raise money, he was left with just over $1.1 million.

To be sure, $1.1 million is certainly nothing to scoff at for a little-known congressional candidate. But given that Murtha has spent over $2 million -- which presumably went to actual campaign activities, rather than self-financing fund-raising efforts -- it's less impressive than some Republicans, and some in the press, may want to believe.

And of course, whether or not Russell pulls it off, BMW will get its cut.

DOJ Office Of The Inspector General

DOJ Honors Department Veteran Who Failed To Object To U.S. Attorney Firings

Zachary Roth | October 29, 2008, 11:33AM

The Department of Justice announced yesterday that, at an annual awards ceremony, it had given an award for "Outstanding Professionalism and Exemplary Integrity" to David Margolis.

Why is that noteworthy?

Margolis, who has been at DOJ since 1965 and now serves as Associate Deputy Attorney General, makes frequent appearances in the report on the US Attorney firings released earlier this month by DOJ's Office of the Inspector General.

By and large, the report depicts Margolis as a respected career DOJ-er, who was largely out of the loop on many of the details of the scheme to fire US Attorneys for political reasons.

But it also shows that right before the firings, Kyle Sampson, the point man on the plan, showed Margolis -- whose informal biography, says the report, listed one of his duties as being a liaison between main DOJ and the US Attorneys -- a list of six of the US Attorneys to be fired. Margolis had earlier recommended to Sampson that two US Attorneys -- Kevin Ryan and Dunn Lampton -- be fired for legitimate performance-based reasons, but neither one appeared on Sampson's list. And yet, says the report, Margolis neither raised any objections, nor asked Sampson about how the list was drawn up.

From the report's conclusion:

In November 2006, when Sampson advised Margolis about the impending removals, he either showed Margolis a list or read from a list of six U.S. Attorneys that Sampson indicated were to be removed. Margolis told us that he was struck more by the names Sampson did not mention than the ones he did. Margolis asked Sampson why Ryan and Lampton were not on the removal list, and Sampson responded that he would look into it. Based on Margolis's and McNulty's suggestion, Ryan was subsequently added to the list.

However, Margolis told us that he did not think to question Sampson about the six U.S. Attorneys who were on Sampson's list. Margolis said he was more focused on the names that were omitted and assumed Sampson had valid reasons for the six slated for removal.

Margolis is the senior career attorney in the Department and someone who had significant knowledge about U.S. Attorneys and their performance. He was involved in panel interviews for the selection of most U.S. Attorneys, and as part of his duties handles misconduct allegations involving U.S. Attorneys. He is highly respected within the Department, and his opinion was valued because of his experience and stature.

Yet, prior to the removals, he never questioned Sampson concerning why the specific U.S. Attorneys slated for removal were chosen or what process was used to select them. We believe that under these circumstances - an unprecedented dismissal of a group of U.S. Attorneys at one time allegedly for performance reasons - Margolis should have raised questions about the list and the process used to identify the names to ensure there were no improper reasons and that the Department was following a defensible process for the removals. But Margolis never raised those issues, and instead focused solely on seeking to ensure that Ryan was added to the removal list.

...

We recognize that the decision to remove the U.S. Attorneys was not Margolis's to make. But given his position, we believe he should have asked Sampson, McNulty, or other senior Department leaders about the removal process. This is particularly true given that this removal of U.S. Attorneys was unprecedented, and it did not appear from the names on Sampson's list that the U.S. Attorneys Margolis thought were weak had been included.

The report also quotes from Margolis' subsequent testimony to Congress, in which he acknowledged he should have done more:

I should say that I am a bit exasperated by my role here because I'm the only one of all the people involved who knows how to fire a United States Attorney or a Marshal based on experience. And I was not aggressive enough or vigilant enough, and I should have done a number of things, I should have inserted myself. I was too passive, and I'd like to, I think--and I hold myself accountable for this--that if I had stepped in and said something, that maybe this would have been - we would have handled this better...

The report further concludes:

We believe that given Margolis's experience, position, and stature he was too deferential to others on this important and unprecedented removal of U.S. Attorneys. Had he raised questions, as he acknowledged he should have, the damage to the Department by the fundamentally flawed removal process might have been mitigated.

Margolis was clearly a long way from being the main villain in the US Attorneys saga. But he didn't exactly cover himself with glory in the affair.

And he certainly didn't demonstrate "Outstanding Professionalism and Exemplary Integrity" -- the qualities for which he's just been honored.

Alaska

Stevens Asks for Probe Into Prosecution

Kate Klonick | October 29, 2008, 10:54AM

On the tail of Sen. Ted Stevens' conviction, the senator's defense team -- clearly in withdrawal that they can't seek mistrials anymore -- requested an investigation into "numerous, serious constitutional violations" by the prosecution.

From the AP:

In the letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, [Steven's attorney Brendan] Sullivan asked that immediate steps be taken to preserve all Justice Department information related to its investigation and prosecution of Stevens. He also asked Mukasey to pull the prosecution team from any further involvement with the case.

"We believe that an impartial investigator looking at this case with an eye toward the administration of justice would be shocked at the conduct of this prosecution team," the letter says.

The attorney alleges in the request that prosecutors knowingly presented false evidence to the jury in Washington, which found Stevens guilty Monday of seven felony counts.

"Senator Stevens' trial was irretrievably tainted by the prosecution team's zeal to convict a high-profile but innocent defendant," the letter says.

The letter was delivered to the attorney general Tuesday morning. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said the department would have no comment. Sullivan's office did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment.

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

Natalie Sherman | October 29, 2008, 9:33AM

Another day, another land deal. In the late 1990s, John McCain tried to get the U.S. Forest Service to exchange part of the Tonto National Forest for land partly owned by a billionaire McCain contributor connected to Charles Keating. McCain was spurred to action by a developer, who wanted to turn the 2,154-acre Spur Cross Ranch -- desert home to Hopi Indian artifacts and special cacti -- into a golf course. (McClatchy)

Little -- if anything -- is known about a mysterious GOP donor, Shi Sheng Hao, who has given over a quarter million dollars to John McCain's campaign and the RNC. Hao's residence, occupation and current whereabouts are all unknown. But here's what we do know: he declared bankruptcy in 1995, registered to vote after his massive donations began, doesn't live at any of his listed addresses, and eight associates and relatives of Hao have given $130,000 to the RNC since last year. Curiouser and curiouser. . . (Chicago Tribune)

A military judge yesterday threw out the confession of Mohammed Jawad, a young Afghani accused of wounding two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter, saying it was obtained through torture. Jawad's case is already shaky, and prompted the resignation of a military prosecutor last month. (Reuters)

Read more »

voter fraud

ACLU: White House Intervention In Ohio Voting Is "Partisan Politics At Its Worst"

Zachary Roth | October 28, 2008, 4:49PM

The ACLU has written to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, urging him not to have the Justice Department intervene in a voting-rights dispute in Ohio.

The move comes in response to fast-moving recent events. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a bid by Ohio Republicans to require Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's Democratic secretary of state, to provide local election officials with lists of new voters whose registration information did not match that on other government documents.

That prompted House Republican leader John Boehner to write to Mukasey, asking him to require Brunner to hand over the lists. When Mukasey did not respond, Boehner contacted the White House, which said Friday that it had passed his request on to Mukasey, and asked for action.

Voting-rights advocates fear that making Brunner hand over the lists could lead to a slew of GOP challenges, forcing hundreds of thousands of voters to cast provisional ballots.

They also see the White House's involvement as an inappropriate politicization of DOJ. In its letter to Mukasey, ACLU writes of the White House's move:

With the election one week away, this kind of intrusion represents partisan politics at its worst. In addition, challenging -- or purging -- lawfully registered voters in the days before the election invites chaos and undermines the integrity of the democratic process.

She said her organization would be watching to see whether Mukasey -- who was picked to run DOJ after Alberto Gonzales resigned amid accusations that he had overseen inappropriate politicization of the department and misled Congress -- would respond.

A group of Ohio Democrats, led by Sen. Sherrod Brown, has also written to Mukasey, urging him not to intervene in the case.

* This sentence has been corrected from an earlier version.

Mass. State Senator Arrested for Extortion and Wire Fraud

Kate Klonick | October 28, 2008, 4:06PM

After 13 months of federal investigation, Massachusetts State Sen. Diane Wilkerson (D) was arrested this morning. In a 43 page long affidavit -- complete with pictures of hand-offs and money being stuffed into bras -- the FBI alleged that Wilkerson took $23,500 in bribes to get a liquor license for the club Dejavu.

Below is the picture from the affidavit exhibits that shows Wilkerson shoving $1000 into her bra. This might beat out TPMmuckraker's favorite photo of Sen. Ted Stevens' bronzed salmon statue, but just barely.

Wilkerson has had a long and sordid history with the law which began in 1997 when she was sentenced to house arrest for failing to pay over $50,000 in income taxes. This afternoon, Wilkerson was stripped of her chairmanship of the Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight.

In September, Wilkerson lost the Democratic primary, in which her candidacy was supported by Gov. Deval Patrick. In a statement following the arrest in the Boston Globe, Patrick said that the "initial reports are both troubling and sad. These are very serious charges and I will trust the judicial process to take them seriously."

Voting

Indiana Sec of State on Blacks and Dems: "Who's the Master and Who's the Slave?"

Zachary Roth | October 28, 2008, 3:10PM

Todd Rokita -- the Indiana secretary of state who wants ACORN prosecuted for voter fraud -- may be the gift that keeps on giving.

Earlier today, we reported that Rokita, a Republican, has said he's proud that he was part of the team of GOP activists that descended on Florida and pulled out all the stops to block the 2000 recount and put George Bush in the White House.

Now, a reader points us to this 2007 Associated Press story, which reports:

During a speech Thursday at a Republican event, Todd Rokita said 90 percent of blacks vote for Democrats.

"How can that be?" Rokita said. "Ninety to ten. Who's the master and who's the slave in that relationship? How can that be
healthy?"

So:
- Committed GOP partisan -- check.
- History of racially insensitive comments -- check.

Sounds like just the guy to be running a close election in a year when the first major-party African-American candidate is on the ballot.

Ted Stevens

Ted Stevens' First Day As a Convicted Felon

Kate Klonick | October 28, 2008, 1:40PM

Yesterday, in an unanimous decision, the jury in the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens found the seven-term senator guilty on seven count of false statements. The verdict made Stevens, the longest serving Republican in the Senate, a convicted felon and one of only five in all of history to be convicted of a crime, and the first since 1981.

This morning, presidential hopeful and fellow Senator John McCain called for Stevens, embroiled in a close election of his own, to step down.

Fox News caught up with the Senator leaving his office today to return home to Alaska to campaign, and it appeared that becoming a convicted felon hadn't chastened Stevens legendary ornery attitude. At the end of the interview, Trish Turner, the Fox News Senate producer asked the senator, "What is the formula for winning," to which he replied, "Not answering you right now." Take a look.

Also release this morning were scanned versions of all of the notes passed between the jury and Judge Emmet Sullivan, which we've collected here along with the historical official verdict.

ACORN

Indiana GOP Sec of State Helped Stop Florida Recount

Zachary Roth | October 28, 2008, 1:32PM

Yesterday we told you about an effort by Indiana's Republican secretary of state, Todd Rokita, to press federal and state authorities to prosecute ACORN for voter fraud. Rokita had said a review by his office of forms submitted by ACORN found "multiple criminal violations."

But it turns out that Rokita hardly has a reputation as a non-partisan public official. In October 2002, the South Bend Tribune reported (via nexis):

Working on his own time, [Rokita] also assisted George W. Bush's campaign during the infamous Florida election recount in 2000. Rokita is proud of that, especially because the U.S. Supreme Court cited Indiana election law when it decided the election in Bush's favor.

That background as a partisan knife-fighter is worth keeping in mind as Rokita seeks to stoke fears about voter fraud -- and, more generally, as he administers what could be a very close election in Indiana.

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

Natalie Sherman | October 28, 2008, 9:41AM

Former Osama bin Laden aide Ali Hamza al-Bahlul and his U.S. military lawyer threw a wrench in the works of the Guantanamo Bay military trial, staying silent yesterday as the Pentagon's war crimes case opened. Al-Bahlul, who has described the trial as a "legal farce," had asked to represent himself. (AP)

Judges ruled against Georgia's Secretary of State in a voting rights dispute yesterday, determining that she should have received Justice Department approval before implementing a new voter verification system. The decision put a temporary hold on the purging of Georgia voter databases, ruling that election officials must accept ballots from people whose citizenship has been questioned. The eligibility of individual votes will be determined after the election. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Kwame Kilpatrick, the ex-mayor of Detroit, heads to prison today to begin serving his 120-day sentence for lying during a trial that investigated his firing and hiring practices. For $115 per day, Kilpatrick gets a 15-by-10-foot cell with an hour out for recreation. (Detroit Free Press)

Read more »

Michael Mukasey

Ohio Dems Push Back On White House Call For DOJ Action On Voting

Zachary Roth | October 27, 2008, 6:17PM

Last week, the White House asked the Department of Justice to take action on an effort that could force tens of thousands of new Ohio voters to cast provisional ballots.

Soon afterwards, a group of Ohio Democrats, led by Sen. Sherrod Brown, announced in a press release that they had written to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, urging him not to intervene in the issue.

Wrote the Democrats: "The eyes of the nation are once again on Ohio in this critical election, and there is no room for partisan politics that seek to erode voter confidence in Ohio's election system."

The U.S. Supreme Court had earlier rejected an effort by the GOP to require the Democratic Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, to provide local election officials with information on newly registered voters whose registration information does not match other government records. Democrats fear that giving that information to local officials could allow Republicans to mount challenges to eligible voters, with the result that many could be forced to cast provisional ballots.

In addition to Brown, the other Democrats signing the letter were Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Tim Ryan, Zack Space, Betty Sutton, and Charles Wilson.

Voting

Phony Virginia Flier Tells Dems To Vote November 5

Zachary Roth | October 27, 2008, 5:04PM

A phony flier, purporting to be from the Virginia Board of Elections, is circulating in the African-American-heavy Hampton Roads region of the state, falsely informing people that, because of expected high turnout, Democrats should vote on November 5th.

The election is November 4th.

State election officials informed the local press of the flier, which was posted on the website of The Virginian-Pilot, and is designed to look like an official announcement. It even uses images of the state board logo and the state seal, both of which are available online.

It reads:

Due to the larger than expected voter turnout in this years [sic] electoral process, An [sic] emergency session of the General Assembly has adopted the following emergency regulations to ease the load on local electorial [sic] precincts and ensure a fair electorial [sic] process.

All Democratic party supporters and independent voters supporting Democratic candidates shall vote on November 5th as adopted by emergency regulation of the Virginia General Assembly.

All Republican party supporters and independent voters supporting Republican candidates shall vote on November 4th as precribed [sic] by law.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause but felt this was the only way to ensure fairness to the complete electorial [sic] process.

Virginia, where Barack Obama currently leads, is a crucial swing state in the election.

Alaska

Stevens Found Guilty on All Counts

Kate Klonick | October 27, 2008, 3:59PM

CNN reporting that Sen. Ted Stevens has been found guilty on all seven counts of making false statements on his financial disclosure forms.

We'll have more coming, so check back for updates.

Something to think about from the AP:

Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each count but, under federal sentencing guidelines, will likely receive much less prison time, if any.

More detail on the seven-term senator's reaction to the news from Bloomberg:

Stevens's lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, had his arm around the senator's shoulders and shook his head as the verdict was being read. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan delayed setting a sentencing date at the defense's request.

Late update . . . 4:21pm: Stevens' sentencing will be January 26, 2009, AP is reporting.

Stevens was indicted July 29 for accepting $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from VECO and failing to report them on his Senate disclosure forms. Stevens pleaded not-guilty to all seven counts of false statements and requested a speedy trial in order to accommodate his re-election campaign. Stevens' attorneys attempted to move the trial from D.C. to Alaska and submit evidence to smear one of the prosecutions key witnesses, Bill Allen, former VECO CEO and friend of Stevens.

The trial began on September 25, and included testimony from Allen, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Ted Stevens himself.

Jury deliberations which began last Wednesday, October 22, were immediately plagued by setbacks. The jury attempted to remove one of the jurors who was prone to "violent outbursts" and another juror was excused to return home after her father died and was replaced this morning by an alternate.

Late update . . . 4:35pm: A full description from the AP of each count again Sen. Stevens and the jury's related guilty verdict can be found here.

Late update . . . 4:49pm: Ted Stevens: obstinate and feisty even after conviction. . . also, repeats himself.

From the ADN:

As Stevens exited the courtroom, his wife, Catherine, kissed him on the cheek.

Moments earlier, he told her, "It's not over yet." She responded, "You got that right."

And then he added, "Not over yet."

Stevens and his lawyers, who rarely speak to the media, exited the courthouse without making a statement.

Late update . . . 4:50pm: Ted Stevens' prosecutors hold a press conference cum "victory lap" outside the courthouse.

Late update. . .5:01pm: Bloomberg has more follow-up on what will happen to Ted Stevens, noting that the seven-term senator doesn't need to relinquish his seat unless removed by a full Senate vote.

Stevens will remain free on personal recognizance until sentencing.

Late update. . . Putting It In Context Edition: It's really worth taking a moment to reflect on how historic this decision is.

Sen. Stevens is a sitting senator, one of only five in all of history to be convicted of a crime, and the first since 1981, the Wall Street Journal notes.

Stevens is 84 years old -- soon to be 85 on Nov. 15 -- and is the longest-serving Republican with almost 40 years in the Senate representing Alaska.

Late update. . . 5:42pm: The AP expounds on Stevens' reaction as the verdict was read:

Visibly shaken after the verdicts were read -- the jury foreman declaring "guilty" seven times -- Stevens tried to intertwine his fingers but quickly put his hands down to his side after noticing they were trembling.

Late update. . . Palin Comments edition: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has commented on Stevens' conviction:

This is a sad day for Alaska and a sad day for Senator Stevens and his family. The verdict shines a light on the corrupting influence of the big oil service company up there in Alaska that was allowed to control too much of our state. And that control was part of the culture of corruption that I was elected to fight, and that fight must always move forward regardless of party affiliation or seniority or even past service. As Governor of the State of Alaska, I will carefully now monitor the situation and I'll take any appropriate action as needed. In the meantime, I ask the people of Alaska to join me in respecting the workings of our judicial system and I'm confident that Senator Stevens from this point on will do the right thing for the people of Alaska

CNN also notes that Palin wouldn't respond when asked if she would vote for Stevens in one week.

Late update . . .Stevens' Statement Edition: Stevens was quick to release a statement following his conviction today, blaming prosecutorial misconduct and foreshadowing his appeals.

From the ADN:

I am obviously disappointed in the verdict but not surprised given the repeated instances of prosecutorial misconduct in this case. The prosecutors had to report themselves to the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility during the trial for ethical violations. Exculpatory evidence was hidden from my lawyers. A witness was kept from us and then sent back to Alaska. The Government lawyers allowed evidence to be introduced that they knew was false. I will fight this unjust verdict with every ounce of energy I have.

I am innocent. This verdict is the result of the unconscionable manner in which the Justice Department lawyers conducted this trial. I ask that Alaskans and my Senate colleagues stand with me as I pursue my rights. I remain a candidate for the United States Senate.

Late update . . . FAQ Edition: Kathleen Hunter at CQ Politics has a handy little guide to the questions swirling around Stevens' conviction.

Alaska

Possible Verdict in Ted Stevens Trial

Kate Klonick | October 27, 2008, 3:49PM

The AP is reporting the possibility of a verdict this afternoon in the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens.

From the AP:

Jurors in Sen. Ted Stevens' corruption trial passed a note with "a potential verdict" to a federal judge Monday, a courthouse spokesman said.

The jury has been beset by problems since deliberations began Wednesday. Courthouse spokesman Sheldon Snook said the panel sent a note Monday. Attorneys for both sides were called back to court Monday for a reading of the note.

The ambiguity of the note's description, though, apparently leaves open the possibility that jurors have been unable to reach a unanimous verdict. If so, the judge likely would send them back to continue deliberating.

Obama Camp: Indiana Sec of State Part of GOP "Fear Campaign" On Voting

Zachary Roth | October 27, 2008, 3:41PM

Last week, Indiana's Republican Secretary of State, Todd Rokita, sent a letter to federal, state and local authorities asking for a criminal investigation into over 1400 suspicious voter registration forms submitted by ACORN in Lake County, a key Democratic stronghold.

Now, the Obama camp has responded. The Times of Northwest Indiana reports that in a conference call with reporters this afternoon, Bob Bauer, the campaign's top election lawyer, said: "We have seen an orchestrated effort on the part of Republican officials across the country to work with the McCain-Palin ticket and the Republican National Committee to disseminate this message of fraud."

Bauer called the effort "a fear campaign."

Lake County has already been a hotspot for GOP attempts at voter suppression. Last week, the state Supreme Court declined to support a Republican bid to shut down early voting centers in three strongly Democratic cities in northern Lake County.

Voting

Penn. GOP Sues Over ACORN

Kate Klonick | October 27, 2008, 2:22PM

The latest in the GOP's actions against ACORN come in Pennsylvania, where Republicans have filed suit amid allegations that the group engaged in widespread voter registration fraud.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

The suit asks Commonwealth Court to force Pedro Cortés, Pennsylvania's secretary of state, to ensure that the state database used by county elections officials to approve local registration applications is working properly. GOP officials said that they have had reports that the database is often down, creating a backlog of registrations.

The complaint also asks that the court require the state to provide a significantly larger number of provisional ballots at each polling place so that voters whose registrations have not been processed by Election Day can cast ballots. It also asks the court to order ACORN to provide a complete list of all the applications it has obtained and to fund public-service announcements informing first-time voters that they are required to show proof of identity before casting ballots.

Cortés called the suit frivolous and said the allegations are "aimed at doing nothing other than undermining voters' confidence just 18 days before the election."

"The fact that apparently fraudulent registrations have been identified is a testament to the safeguards we have in place to prevent ineligible voters from casting a ballot," said Cortés, adding that the state has not received any complaints about the database system.

ACORN

Voting-Rights Groups Sue NM GOP, Alleging Voter Intimidation

Zachary Roth | October 27, 2008, 2:19PM

ACORN has announced that it's assisting in two lawsuits filed against the New Mexico Republican GOP, alleging voter intimidation. The ACLU and Project Vote -- a group that's been described as an ACORN affiliate -- are filing suit in state court, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) is suing in federal court, according to Matthew Henderson of ACORN's New Mexico office*.

News of the suits comes after the party publicly released the names of ten voters it falsely claimed had voted fraudulently, and after TPMmuckraker and others reported claims that a private investigator, who said he was working with state GOP lawyer Pat Rogers, had questioned two Hispanic voters about their eligibility to vote.

We reported Friday that, according to several voting-rights experts, the activities of the private investigator -- and perhaps those who hired him -- may violate federal law. Voting-rights advocates have forwarded reports of the encounters to DOJ voting officials.

In a press release, ACORN's Dana Gallegos said:

These are all minority voters. Many of them are young, and one is a new citizen. ACORN has worked hard to get these types of new voters involved in the democratic process. We will not tolerate attempts by the Republican Party to suppress the Hispanic vote in New Mexico.

* This paragraph has been edited from an earlier version.

Update: Here's the ACLU/Project Vote suit.

Update II: Here's the MALDEF suit, which names as defendants Pat Rogers and private investigator Al Romero.

The FBI ACORN Investigation: What Do We Know?

Zachary Roth | October 27, 2008, 1:51PM

Earlier this month, senior law enforcement sources leaked to the Associated Press the fact that the FBI has launched a nationwide investigation into whether ACORN is involved in a co-ordinated scheme to commit voter-fraud across the country.

In response to the AP report, several former DOJ voting-rights officials told TPMmuckraker that the decision to launch such an investigation so soon before an election -- not to mention the act of leaking it to the press -- is reminiscent of the politicization of DOJ that was exposed in the US Attorneys scandal.

But since then, we've seen few concrete facts about the probe. So it's worth taking a moment to lay out what we know, and what it might amount to.

Almost as soon as the news was reported, department sources tried to walk it back a bit, telling the New York Times that they were "wary of being pulled into a highly partisan controversy so close to Election Day," and stressing that the investigation would focus on separate state-based reports of ACORN submitting fraudulent voter-registration forms.

As we reported after the news broke, DOJ policy discourages law enforcement authorities from taking any action in the lead-up to an election which might "chill legitimate voting activities," as the department's own manual puts it. On Friday, some former department officials wrote a letter to Mukasey making exactly this point. (Though it's also worth remembering that under Alberto Gonzales, DOJ made changes to its manual that make it easer to bring voter-fraud cases closer to election day.)

The bureau may be sensitive to those concerns. ACORN itself says it still hasn't been formally contacted by the FBI in connection with a nationwide investigation, and we've seen little evidence that the bureau is proceeding with a heavy hand on the national level.

Still, in several states there's evidence of FBI involvement following complaints from local election officials about voter-registration fraud tied to ACORN.

In New Mexico, the Bernalillo County Clerk met with investigators from the FBI and the US Attorney's office, after passing on around 1500 suspicious forms submitted to her office -- in an area where ACORN is active.

In Missouri, the GOP-led Kansas City Elections Board said the FBI is looking at 600-800 suspicious forms after ACORN submitted 19,000 in the city.

And in Nevada, the FBI is part of a joint federal-state task force announced earlier this year to look into voter fraud, though a raid on a Las Vegas ACORN office conducted earlier this month was led by the office of Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller.

Both the Obama campaign and House Judiciary chair John Conyers have suggested that the investigation is politically motivated.

That skepticism makes sense, especially given the Bush administration's well-documented history of pushing DOJ toward bogus, politically motivated voter-fraud prosecutions -- which we were reminded of Friday, when the White House asked the department to take action on a voter-suppression bid by the Ohio GOP, that had already been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. And the fact that the probe was launched just as national Republicans -- including, in a televised debate, John McCain -- were trying to turn ACORN into a national boogeyman tied to Obama adds to suspicions.

But so far, there's little evidence that, at ground level, the conduct of the investigation itself could be described as overly aggressive or as intended to influence the election. Though of course, one reason for the apparent softly-softly approach is that no evidence has yet emerged that ACORN has been involved in a nationwide voter-fraud scheme -- the supposed subject of the investigation.

But you can bet we'll be watching this closely from now to election day -- and beyond.

Alaska

Stevens' Jury Spots Errors in Government's Indictment

Kate Klonick | October 27, 2008, 1:38PM

The prosecution has had serious bungles of their case against Sen. Ted Stevens -- one of which led to the exclusion of key evidence from consideration by the jury.

Now, it's not the defense but the jury that are calling the government on their missteps, pointing out an error in the indictment of the sitting senator.

From the AP:

Among the seven charges in the indictment, prosecutors said that Stevens checked "no" on financial documents when asked whether he received any gifts in 2001. Actually, he checked "yes," -- and jurors asked the judge what they should do about that.

Prosecutors insisted it was merely a typographical error that didn't affect the overall charge. Stevens did disclose one gift in 2001, but it was not related to the case. He didn't disclose any gifts from oil contractor Bill Allen or his company, VECO Corp.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said he would instruct jurors to consider only the evidence, not the indictment, when deciding whether to convict Stevens. He rejected the Justice Department's claim that it was merely a typo.

"Presumably somebody reads these indictments before they return them?" Sullivan said.

Alaska

Ted Stevens' Jury Plays Musical Chairs

Kate Klonick | October 27, 2008, 11:40AM

Between the "stressful" first day, "violent" juror and sudden adjournment, it was an exciting first week in Sen. Ted Stevens' trial and the second promises to be no different -- especially since deliberations are starting from square one.

On Friday, juror No. 4 was excused to return home after the death of her father. Judge Emmet Sullivan announced that he would check in with the juror over the weekend to determine whether or not she would be able to return.

But in the days following the adjournment juror No. 4 has been unreachable, and on Sunday, Sullivan decided to go ahead with deliberations replacing her with an alternate.

"We have four alternates for this reason," Judge Sullivan at the hearing Sunday according to the Anchorage Daily News.

The addition of an alternate juror means that deliberations -- which have been riddled with distractions -- will start anew.

This morning, after a brief vetting of the new juror, deliberations began again. Here at TPM we're not holding our breath that this is the last we hear from this drama-laden jury before a verdict.

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

Matt Berman | October 27, 2008, 9:48AM

More earmark trouble for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). Stevens, who is awaiting a verdict in his federal corruption trial, pushed $2.7 million in federal money to Alaska to pave a road that leads to his friend Bob Persons' bistro. Persons has deep ties with Stevens - he not only looked over the reconstruction of Stevens' Girdwood home but also appears in Stevens' indictment as "Person A" and testified as a witness for the defense. (AP/Anchorage Daily News)

Embattled Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-FL) dropped out of a debate Friday night and may be avoiding public appearances in general leading up to election day. Mahoney, who was preceded by former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) is accused of having at least two affairs with seedy circumstances. (Palm Beach Daily News)

Sarah Palin has apparently returned a third of the clothing bought for her at high-end stores by the RNC. A McCain strategist said that the clothes were returned immediately due to size issues. (AP)

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