ACORN Charges Republican McCarthyism

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis yesterday blamed the Bush administration for the organization’s woes and accused Republicans of “ACORN McCarthyism.”

Lewis blamed Karl Rove for instigating the legal troubles the “community organizers” are facing. At this point, reports of ACORN illegal conduct have sparked a string of criminal investigations nationwide on charges of fraudulent voter registration activities. Most recently, two young journalists caught ACORN staffers in a sting operation exposing tax and sex trafficking advice. Both houses of congress have passed measures to de-fund the organization,

Lewis was hosted by the National Press Club at a “Newsmaker” event yesterday where she took only written questions, struggling to put a smiley face on the group’s legal and financial scandals.

Late last month, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, released a scathing report (pdf) alleging that ACORN is using a tangled web of tax-exempt organizations to funnel tax money to itself. Lewis denied the charges.

“Senator Grassley, that whole report, if you read the entire thing, said well, they’ve got all of these corporations down there in Louisiana,” Lewis said. “Who knows what they’re doing with them, and they’re probably shoveling money around because after all, you know, look what happened with the founder’s brother.”

ACORN founder Wade Rathke was pushed out of the organization when his brother, Dale, was accused of embezzling $1 million from the organization.

“Senator Grassley’s report was just that: another stretch of allegations of how to pound on ACORN and paint a picture that you must be doing that if you’re getting money there’s no way that you could keep it separately, and it’s just off,” Lewis said.

“ACORN told me three times in 2006 and 2007 that it did not operate as a tax-exempt entity,” Grassley told HUMAN EVENTS. “In fact, it had 42 tax-exempt entities and even housed 31 of them at the same address in New Orleans. My analysis came from ACORN’s own documents. ACORN was a conglomerate, and it shuffled money among its many operations. If all of that has changed in just a year or two, then ACORN easily could clear things up by giving a full accounting to the public of how many tax-exempt entities and taxable entities it currently operates, how much money is funneled among them, and how much money is spent advancing the charitable mission of helping poor people get housing versus other activities that have nothing to do with the charitable mission. The new leadership hasn’t provided any specific information about which entities are gone and which ones remain.”

In clinical denial of the widespread wrongdoing by her organization, Lewis instead blamed “ACORN McCarthyism” and Karl Rove.

“I do think that for many years there have been folks that have disagreed with our ideology or methodology that has gone after us,” Lewis said. “Going to 2004 we now see through emails from Karl Rove from the previous administration that ACORN itself was targeted -- targeted to go after us so that we would stop doing voter registration because it was said that we were moving too many minorities to vote, changing the power dynamics on local elections and that we needed to be stopped.”

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), in his position as the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has been a leader in seeking accountability from ACORN, issuing a comprehensive report (pdf) back in July questioning the group’s “criminal enterprise”-style financial structure.

Issa responded to the “McCarthyism” charge yesterday.

“Was it Republicans who embezzled millions from within their own organization and have yet to report the embezzlement to the IRS or Labor Department?” Issa responded. “Was it Republicans who conducted the internal review that highlighted the lack of firewalls between their charitable and political activities? Was it Republicans who hired a man convicted of multiple counts of conspiracy and money laundering to raise funds and register voters in Oklahoma? The fact that ACORN's leadership refuses to even acknowledge and accept responsibility for the state of their organization is disturbing and brings into question the sincerity of ACORN’s pledge to reform their organization.”

Republican staff on the Oversight and Government Reform committee yesterday said they were examining newly acquired internal ACORN documents in their ongoing look into ACORN’s funding structure.

The embezzlement allegations are under investigation by Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell. There is some discrepancy over the amount of funds allegedly embezzled by Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke. Caldwell raised the amount in question to $5 million, up from the $1 million that was earlier suspected.

Caldwell has subpoenaed ACORN’s records.

“The only question is whether some of that money was classified as expenses, or trips, or this, that and the other, and wasn't actually stolen. There may be some question as to whether it was $3.5 (million), $2.8 (million), it's more than a million,” Caldwell told the Associated Press.

Caldwell said that he will determine if any charges are warranted and still within the statute of limitations after examining the records.

“We're not going to take their word for anything,” he said. “We're going to take their records and let the records speak for themselves.”

Lewis also blamed the RNC for perpetuating coverage of the scandals for monetary purposes.

“The RNC every single day, because we’ve been inflated as the boogeyman, raises almost 2 million dollars a day every day,” Lewis said.

I checked with the RNC to assess the impact of the ACORN corruption charges on fundraising. Sources said that fundraising is very brisk due to overwhelming voter opposition to the proposed Democrat takeover of health care, out-of-control spending and the tea party activity throughout August. Although Democrats are inextricably linked to ACORN, the RNC could not attribute $2 million in fundraising a day to the ACORN scandals.

“After years of speculation, the truth about ACORN and its nefarious activities has finally surfaced,” RNC Chairman Michael Steele told HUMAN EVENTS. “ACORN is an undeniably corrupt organization, and all funneling of taxpayer dollars to the organization should be terminated immediately. ACORN’s goals have gone from empowering Americans to empowering itself to move up the ladder of political power. ACORN used illegal means to achieve its ends, and it has resulted in multiple arrests and a complete loss of faith by the American voters. Having received over $50 million in taxpayers’ money, our elected representatives have an obligation to end all taxpayer funding to ACORN. Given President Obama’s close past ties to ACORN and his call for his administration to avoid the appearance of impropriety, he should immediately end all funding of this corrupt organization.”

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 of the 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 financial management 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 grants. According 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 Justice Department 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--24pp

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"That whitey Ratke was eatn' at Cote Basque on the $5 mill he stole from us.
All's I got was chitlin's, corn bread, pig's feet and this orange dashiki."

" Course there's all those numbered accounts in Zimbabwe."

Hey Bertha, did you ever read the historical evidence that McCarthy was right? Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. This has been posted on FR before but it seems appropriate to repost it now.

Venona Project Homepage, NSA (Decrypted Soviet Cables, Coulter source for Treason book)
National Security Agency ^ | July 1995 (Documents Made Public)

Posted on Thursday, June 26, 2003 7:25:55 AM by Stultis

Introduction to the VENONA Project
An Effort to Digitize and Enhance the VENONA Documents
by Mr. William P. Crowell, Former Deputy Director, National Security Agency

In July 1995 the Intelligence Community ended a 50-year silence regarding one of cryptology’s most splendid successes - the VENONA Project. VENONA was the codename used for the U.S. Signals Intelligence effort to collect and decrypt the text of Soviet KGB and GRU messages from the 1940’s. These messages provided extraordinary insight into Soviet attempts to infiltrate the highest levels of the United States Goverment.
Today, we are proud to offer these exceptional documents on the NSA home page and we invite you to study and interpret them in the context of history. NSA has declassified over 3000 messages related to VENONA. We believe they will not only provide a window into Soviet espionage during the 1940’s, but will also give you a glimpse of the important contributions signals intelligence and cryptographic expertise make to our nation’s security.

The Link:
http://www.nsa.gov/docs/venona/

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