FReep mail me if you want on/off the list.
Posted on 10/05/2009 6:13:44 PM PDT by jazusamo
A top-ranking Republican lawmaker is calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
In a letter sent to Attorney General Eric Holder and obtained by The Hill on Monday, House Judiciary Committee ranking member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) argues that
President Barack Obama’s political ties to the scandal-plagued community-activist group and its affiliates will “taint” any potential Justice Department investigations.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has not announced whether it has launched a probe of ACORN, but Smith said any such investigation could be compromised.
“I am very concerned that the president’s previous advocacy on behalf of ACORN, his work with ACORN, and ACORN’s support of his candidacy create, at the least, an appearance of a conflict of interest for Department officials, particularly political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president,” Smith wrote.
Smith is the first lawmaker to call on Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate ACORN, which has been in the hot seat since early September, when reports surfaced alleging that the group was complicit in encouraging tax evasion, prostitution, fraud, conspiracy and human trafficking.
Smith cited several reports detailing the president’s 15-year association with the organization, including his work in 1991 with Project Vote, where he ran a voter-registration drive. Project Vote was subsequently absorbed by ACORN.
A White House aide said that there are a “number of inaccurate claims in Congressman Smith’s letter.”
According to then-Project Vote Executive Director Sandy Newman, ACORN was not in charge of the “nonpartisan drive to increase voter participation,” and the two groups did not actively team up until well after “Obama’s tenure had ended” at Project Vote.
The Obama administration in recent weeks has moved to distance itself from ACORN. The Commerce Department recently announced it would not work with ACORN on the 2010 census. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has called the ACORN employees’ behavior “unacceptable.”
Bertha Lewis, who heads ACORN, is scheduled to appear at a media event at the National Press Club on Tuesday morning.
According to a release, Bertha will address “the future of ACORN, an internal probe into accusations of wrongdoing against the group after the release of hidden-camera videos of ACORN workers advising a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute, ACORN’s lawsuit against the undercover filmmakers … and action in Congress to cut off federal funding of the organization.”
Smith highlighted the ACORN political action committee endorsement of Obama in February 2008, posted on the president’s campaign website, where Obama said
“I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. When I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.”
Based on the reports of Obama’s close connection with ACORN and the recent spate of legal controversies involving the group, Smith argued that it “appear[s] to place any investigation of ACORN squarely within the intended use of the Special Counsel regulation.”
GOP Sen. Mike Johanns (Neb.) recently requested that Holder launch a DOJ investigation following reports that the embattled organization “may have been engaged in illegal activity.”
In his letter to Holder, Smith says the group has been under investigation in 20 states, its employees were charged with more than 50 counts of “election-related fraud,” and that ACORN has spent more than $1 million on restitution to avoid criminal prosecutions.
Justice Department spokeswoman Tracey Schmaler said that the law enforcement agency “will review the letter.”
According to Schmaler, DOJ “typically [does] not comment or confirm investigations.”
Republicans on Capitol Hill last month seized on the political momentum building against ACORN, winning passage of measures in both chambers to strip the group of its federal funding.
ACORN has received $53 million from the federal government since 1995.
Yup. Hell, we got no shortage of lawyers and investigators, have at it.
About 30 years too late....
Ping!
“I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. When I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.”
The alphabet media is wearing that statement out. /s
FReep mail me if you want on/off the list.
bttt
Michele ‘a real belle’ Bachmann has been all over ACORN for the past several months.
Yes she has and the leftists have been going nuts.
Go, Michele!
Two words: “FAT” and “CHANCE.”
i don’t have confidence that this will lead to anything other than possibly exhonoration of ACORN and/or GOP compicity in their scams.
Not that any of that would be true....but....a politician calling for an investigation of someone or some entity, is a politician calling for an investigation of himself. And a clean politician is an oxymoron.
I doubt very seriously that it’ll happen but calling as much attention to it as possible is probably good.
Special prosecutors suck. Period.
ACORNS IN THE WHITE HOUSE
(1) ACORN's man in the Obama White House is longtime ACORN operative Patrick Gaspard. He holds the title of White House political affairs director, the same title Karl Rove held in President Bush's White House. He's the President’s fixer and the man who gets ACORN projects and money. Gaspard once worked for ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis.
(2) Patrick Gaspard’s brother Michael Gaspard works for The Advance Group. Michael Gaspard works for ACORN’s registered lobbying organization and with ACORN’s national spokesman Bertha Lewis. Michael apparently keeps a lower profile than his brother. He does not appear on lobbyist disclosures for The Advance Group NY State. Nonetheless, he works there. Ms. Lewis’s contacts list confirms Michael Gaspard’s employment there.
(3) ACORN Shaun Donovan. Mr. Donovan is HUD Secy. Before that, Mr. Donovan was NYC Commissioner of Dept of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)---where Donovan worked on affordable housing initiatives----projects right up ACORN’s alley.
(4) ACORN Karine Jean-Pierre is WH liaison for Dept of Labor (headed by latino agitator Hilda Solis). Karine once worked for John Edwards (vertical or horizontal?). She left there to work for Cong Anthony Weiner, then became Barack Obama’s regional political director.
The web of connections from ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis straight into the White House, out the other door into HUD and the Dept of Labor (headed by latino agitator Hilda Solis), then circle back to ACORN’s lobbying operation.
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ACORNS EVERYWHERE Senate Finance Committee Study
ACORN comprises a mind-boggling 94 different affiliates, that amounts to "a big shell game," a biting Senate Finance Committee study shows. The study, by the staff of Iowa Republican Charles Grassley, reveals four ACORN charity groups give more than half their revenue to taxable entities that engage in "impermissible lobbying and political activity." ACORN and it’s subsidiaries for decades have moved taxpayer money into their own pockets and into the left-wing Marxist machine.
Sen Charles Grassley's documents show leaders of ACORN community groups transferred several million dollars in charitable and government money-----meant for the poor---- to parts of the group that have political (and sometimes profit-making) missions.
Sen Grassley's documents indicate that ACORN's tax-exempt groups----along with its tangled web of allied organizations---- used more than half their charitable and public money in 2006 to pay other ACORN affiliates.
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Let's help the White House distance itself from ACORN (/snic)
FOX CONTACT PAGE http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77538,00.html
FOX PHONE 1-888-369-4762
Yes, of course. I didn't mean to imply that it's not a good thing to bring it to forefront. But if you look up "jaded" in the dictionary, you'll see my picture!
That's is truly outrageous!
Good post.
That’s = That
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT COMPLAINT
January 7, 2009
IN RE: ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS FOR REFORM NOW
EXCERPT The undersigned State Board delegates and National Board members of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (“ACORN”) file this criminal complaint against ACORN Staff and Executive Board members for fraud, embezzlement, conspiracy and concealment, and criminal civil rights violations. Additionally, since there has already been thepublic admission that a felony was committed, it is also possible that other federal offenses havealso been committed including but not limited to;
Title 18 U.S.C. §1341, Mail Fraud,
18 U.S.C.§1001, Presenting a False Document to the an Agent of the United States Government;
18 U.S.C.§1027 False statements and concealment of facts in relation to documents required by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
and other possible offenses including civiland/or criminal RICO violations.
18 U.S.C. §§1961-68 (RICO Act)18 U.S.C. §1001 (False Statementsto Agents of the U.S. Government),
18 U.S.C. §1341 (Mail Fraud),18 U.S.C. §1027 (ERISAViolations), and,
18 U.S.C. §241(Conspiracy Against Civil Rights).
Finally, the complainants contend that full investigations of a RICO conspiracy under 18U.S.C. §1962(c) are warranted because they assert that (1) the defendant persons (2) were employed by or associated with an enterprise (3) that engaged in or affected interstate commerceand that (4) the defendant persons operated or managed the enterprise (5) through a pattern (6) of racketeering activity, and (7) the complaints were injured in its business or property by reason ofthe pattern of racketeering activity.
Thus, the complainants feel that a formal RICO investigationis also warranted. 1. The Alleged Offense:The Complainants hereby allege a violation of Title 18 U.S.C. §241 – Conspiracy Against Constitutional Rights – which prohibits in relevant part, “two or more persons (fromconspiring) to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory,Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same . . .” See, 18 U.S.C. §241.
BACKGROUND ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is acommunity-based advocacy organization founded in 1970. ACORN became part of the story ofthe 2008 presidential election as news reports and allegations surfaced against ACORN in a number of states. These complaints refer primarily to alleged irregularities with voter registrationdrives conducted by the organization. (National Review Online: Inside Obama’s ACORN, May 29, 2008.) But also included significant embezzlement and concealment by Senior Staff and Executive Committee members.
ACORN registered as a non-profit corporation with the Secretary of State in Louisiana in 1977. Its Charter Organization ID is 04700320X. According to its corporate filings, ACORN’s principle place of business is New Orleans, Louisiana, and approximately 294 related entitiesand related non-profits are also located at this place of business. ACORN is not registered as a tax-exempt organization.
ACORN’s top three officers are President Maude Hurd of Dorchester, MA,Vice President Maria Polanco of Brooklyn, NY, and Secretary Maxine A. Nelson of Pine Bluff, AR. Maxine A. Nelson is also the director of Project Vote.Citizen’s Consulting, Inc. (CCI) provides bookkeeping, human resource and financialmanagement services exclusively for ACORN and related entities. All of CCI’s “clients” reside at ACORN office locations, utilize common management and staff. CCI is the financial “nerve center” for ACORN and it affiliated organizations which houses the corporate books and records for all ACORN entities.
ACORN Structure ACORN was founded by Wade Rathke, an activist on issues of labor unions and lowincome workers, and Gary Delgado, an activist on issues of race and social justice. It has national headquarters in New York, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. The organization describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan social justice organization. In 2003,
ACORN opened operations in 20 new cities, including 5 state capitals. The group claims about 350,000 membersacross the country. (Wall Street Journal: Obama and ACORN, October 14, 2008.). Since 1970, ACORN has grown to more than 400,000 member families, organized in 1,200 neighborhood chapters in 110 citiesacross the U.S. and in cities in Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Argentina and India.ACORN FundingGovernment grantsAccording to an October 8, 2008 article in the New York Post, 40% of ACORN’soperations are funded through grants it receives from various governmental entities. (New YorkPost: The Pro-Barack Vote-Fraud Drive, Michelle Malkin, Oct. 8, 2008.)
Grants have been issued to ACORN by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which gave $8.2 million to ACORN in the years between 2003 and 2006, as well as $1.6 million to ACORN affiliates. The Environmental Protection Agency gave a $100,000 grant to ACORN in 2004 for a LouisianaJustice Project, which removed lead from the homes of low income families. The JusticeDepartment also gave a grant to ACORN in 2005 for a juvenile delinquency program. (NPR:ACORN’s Money Tree Has Many Branches, October 15, 2008).
Complainants vs. ALLEGATIONS Bertha Lewis, Wade Rathke, Dale Rathke, Steven Kest, Jon Kest,Mike Shea, Zach Pollett, Helene O’Brien, Amy Schur,Liz Wolf, Beth Butler, Mildred Brown, Maud Hurd, Alton Bennett, Beth Kingsley andother unknown individuals. —SNIP—
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