Iglesias: "I'm Astounded" By DOJ's ACORN Probe

David Iglesias says he's shocked by the news, leaked today to the Associated Press, that the FBI is pursuing a voter-fraud investigation into ACORN just weeks before the election.

"I'm astounded that this issue is being trotted out again," Iglesias told TPMmuckraker. "Based on what I saw in 2004 and 2006, it's a scare tactic." In 2006, Iglesias was fired as U.S. attorney thanks partly to his reluctance to pursue voter-fraud cases as aggressively as DOJ wanted -- one of several U.S. attorneys fired for inappropriate political reasons, according to a recently released report by DOJ's Office of the Inspector General.

Iglesias, who has been the most outspoken of the fired U.S. attorneys, went on to say that the FBI's investigation seemed designed to inappropriately create a "boogeyman" out of voter fraud.

And he added that it "stands to reason" that the investigation was launched in response to GOP complaints. In recent weeks, national Republican figures -- including John McCain at last night's debate -- have sought to make an issue out of ACORN's voter-registration activities.


As we noted earlier, last year, Sen. Diane Feinstein publicly highlighted changes made to DOJ's election crimes manual, which lowered the bar for voter-fraud prosecutions, and made it easier to bring vote-fraud cases close to the election.




The way in which the news was revealed today -- Associated Press sourced its report to two "senior law enforcement officials" who "spoke on condition of anonymity because Justice Department regulations forbid discussing ongoing investigations particularly so close to an election" -- is also raising eyebrows.

Both Iglesias and Bud Cummins -- another of the U.S. attorneys who, according to the IG report, was also fired for political reasons -- told TPMmuckraker that DOJ guidelines do allow US attorneys to speak publicly about an investigation, even before bringing an indictment, if it's to allay public concern over an issue.




http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/iglesias_im_astounded_by_dojs.php




House Judiciary Committee Letter to DOJ On FBI Investigation into ACORN
10-16-2008

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/conyers-mukasey/?resultpage=1&

And prosecute those bastards.

Congress needs to publicly threaten the bastards and then carry it out after the election.

I'm also concerned by the attacks on ACORN by Sen. McCain. He is NOT being truthful with his rhetoric. ACORN does NOT have the authority to register ANYONE. They can allow people to conduct Voter registration drives by letting people fill out APPLICATIONS, however, they go through every application and make determinations whether the applications look valid. If there is something that is questionable they FLAG those applications, before they turn them over to the BOE. ACORN is also required by law to turn ALL applications into the BOE's offices. The BOE's are responsible for actually registering the voters. As a Deputy Registrar I was informed that I could not even talk to an applicant what Party they supported. I'm sure that is the same in most states. The BOE's will NOT be registering Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, or Underdog. It is such a shame Sen. McCain has chosen this path of disinformation.

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I sent another official a link to the Velvet Revolution's interview with a Diebold contractor. She forwarded the email to the Admin. He informed me that we use Hart InterCivic machines (which I was already aware of) so I sent him some info I had regarding Hart's eSlate machines. I thought I should include how I was disgusted by McCain's tactics in regards to ACORN.

I await his response.