Obama Justice Dept. shut down FBI's ACORN investigation

UPDATE: ACORN agrees to leave Ohio (GREAT NEWS!)
UPI.com
3/11/10

COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 11 (UPI) -- The community organizing group ACORN has agreed to give up its license to do business in Ohio as part of a settlement of a lawsuit by a conservative group.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now became a lightning rod during the 2008 presidential campaign, with conservatives charging the group's registration drives sucked up thousands of ineligible voters or others who were encouraged to register multiple times.

Maurice Thompson, the lawyer representing the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, said Wednesday most details of the settlement are sealed, The Columbus Dispatch reported Thursday.

"They will surrender their business license by June 1 and cease to operate in Ohio and cease to support or enable other groups to do what they do," Thompson said.
Alphonse Gerhardstein, ACORN's lawyer, said the group is no longer operating in Ohio. He said the settlement includes no financial payments.

Excerpt: Read more at upi.com

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We are not sure anyone can get a true handle on the amount of ACORN voter fraud that has taken place across America. It is obvious that the states will have to handle this on their own with the Obama Administration's Department of Justice shutting down the FBI from investigation ACORN Voter Fraud. It is a travesty to not know if we have elected officials who are really elected or are they are in office by voter fraud.

When you have ACORN voter fraud in Oklahoma City in a State Senate race, it is obvious it is everywhere.

We believe what Judicial Watch is finding is only the tip of the iceberg. Every precinct in America needs the voter lists scrubbed for ineligible voters. Then motor voter registration needs to be rescinded. After that, everyone registering to vote needs to prove they are a citizen. At the polling places on election day, picture identification with a current address that matches the voter rolls should be mandatory across America.

Obama Justice Dept. shut down FBI's ACORN investigation
By: Mark HemingwayCommentary Staff Writer
03/11/10 1:12 PM EST

Judicial Watch has unearthed some explosive new ACORN documents that, according to a press release, show the Obama Justice Department quashed an FBI investigation of ACORN. It started when the Republican Registrars of Voters of Stamford and Bridgeport, Connecticut -- Lucy Corelli and Joseph Borges -- filed a complaint with the FBI during the 2008 election season:

According to Corelli, on August 1, 2008, her office received 1,200 ACORN voter registration cards from the Secretary of State’s office. Over 300 of these cards were rejected because of “duplicates, underage, illegible and invalid addresses,” which “put a tremendous strain on our office staff and caused endless work hours at taxpayers’ expense.” Corelli claimed the total cost of the extra work caused by ACORN corruption was $20,000. Likewise, Borges contended that: “The organization ACORN during the summer of 2008 conducted a registration drive which has produced over 100 rejections due to incomplete forms and individuals who are not citizens…” Among the examples cited by Borges was a seven-year old child who was registered to vote by ACORN through the use of a forged signature and a fake birth certificate claiming she was 27-years old.

The FBI and Department of Justice opened an investigation into the the charges. But according to documents Judical Watch obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the Obama Justice Department "while noting that ACORN had engaged in 'questionable hiring and training practices,' closed down the investigation in March 2009, claiming ACORN broke no laws." Of course, as Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton made a point of telling me on the phone, it is illegal to knowingly submit false voter registrations so the Justice Department's claim that ACORN didn't violate any laws is highly dubious.

But we're just getting warmed up. Judicial Watch has much more:

By contrast, the documents also include records related to a federal investigation of ACORN corruption in St. Louis, Missouri, involving 1,492 allegedly fraudulent voter registration cards submitted by Project Vote, a liberal non-profit organization affiliated with ACORN on voter registration drives, during the 2006 election season. Assistant United States Attorney Hal Goldsmith initiated the investigation with “concurrence” from the Department of Justice and the participation of the FBI. According to a Justice Department memo, Goldsmith “advised he would prosecute any individual responsible for submitting fraudulent voter registration cards.” Goldsmith identified the statute for prosecution: Title 42, USC 1973 (gg), which provides for criminal penalties for fraudulent voter registrations. In April 2008, eight former ACORN employees from the St. Louis office pled guilty to voter registration fraud.

The documents also encompass a fairly wide swath of information:

The ACORN documents uncovered by Judicial Watch include internal FBI memoranda, signed affidavits, subpoenas, fraudulent voter registration cards, and publications describing ACORN’s policies and practices. The documents also include details regarding numerous allegations of corruption extending beyond voter registration fraud, to include attempts by ACORN employees to coerce workers to participate in campaign activities on behalf of Democratic candidates.

Between all of these documents -- which Judical Watch is making public -- we have a shot at piecing together a comprehensive, systemic look at ACORN corruption. If it looks as bad as it appears and can be substantiated by documentation, the fact that ACORN has not been seriously investigated by the feds will be a damning indictment of the White House.

Source: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Obama-Justice-Dept-shut-down-ACORN-investigation-87360097.html#ixzz0huCpXA0i