Let's see how far under the rug Holder will try to sweep this...

==================================

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/06/ex-official-accuses-justice-
department-racial-bias-black-panther-case/


Ex-Official Accuses Justice Department of Racial Bias in Black Panther 
Case

Published July 06, 2010

In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who quit 
over the handling of a voter intimidation case against the New Black 
Panther Party accused his former employer of instructing attorneys in 
the civil rights division to ignore cases that involve black defendants 
and white victims. 

J. Christian Adams, testifying Tuesday before the U.S. Commission on 
Civil Rights, said that "over and over and over again," the department 
showed "hostility" toward those cases. He described the Black Panther 
case as one example of that -- he defended the legitimacy of the suit 
and said his "blood boiled" when he heard a Justice official claim the 
case wasn't solid. 

"It is false," Adams said of the claim. 

"We abetted wrongdoing and abandoned law-abiding citizens," he later 
testified. 

The department abandoned the New Black Panther case last year. It 
stemmed from an incident on Election Day in 2008 in Philadelphia, where 
members of the party were videotaped in front of a polling place, 
dressed in military-style uniforms and allegedly hurling racial slurs 
while one brandished a night stick. 

The Bush Justice Department brought the first case against three members 
of the group, accusing them in a civil complaint of violating the Voter 
Rights Act. The Obama administration initially pursued the case, winning 
a default judgment in federal court in April 2009 when the Black Panther 
members did not appear in court. But then the administration moved to 
dismiss the charges the following month after getting one of the New 
Black Panther members to agree to not carry a "deadly weapon" near a 
polling place until 2012. 

In a statement Tuesday, a Justice spokesman said the civil rights 
division determined "the facts and the law did not support pursuing 
claims" against the two other defendants and denied Adams' allegations. 

"The department makes enforcement decisions based on the merits, not the 
race, gender or ethnicity of any party involved. We are committed to 
comprehensive and vigorous enforcement of both the civil and criminal 
provisions of the federal laws that prohibit voter intimidation," the 
spokesman said. 

The Civil Rights Commission, which subpoenaed Adams, has been probing 
the incident since last year. Adams said he ignored department 
directives not to testify and eventually quit after he heard Assistant 
Attorney General Thomas Perez testify that there were concerns the Black 
Panther case was not supported by the facts. 

Adams has described the case as open-and-shut and said Tuesday that it 
was a "very low moment" to hear Perez make that claim. 

But he described the department's hostility toward that and other cases 
involving black defendants as "pervasive." Adams cited hostility in the 
department toward a 2007 voting rights case against a black official in 
Mississippi who was accused of trying to intimidate voters. Adams said 
that when the Black Panther case came up, he heard officials in the 
department say it was "no big deal" and "media-generated" and point to 
"Fox News" as the source. 

But as the investigation unfolded, he said he discovered "indications" 
that the Black Panther Party was doing the "same thing" to supporters of 
former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the Democratic 
primary season in early 2008. He urged the commission to pursue 
testimony from other Justice officials to corroborate his story. 

It's unclear how far the commission will get. The commissioners want to 
hear from Christopher Coates, the former chief of the Justice 
Department's voting section, but the commission claims the Justice 
Department is blocking Coates from testifying about why the case was 
dropped. 

In a written statement last week, the department questioned the motives 
of Adams, now an attorney in Virginia and a blogger for Pajamas Media. 

"It is not uncommon for attorneys with the department to have good faith 
disagreements about the appropriate course of action in a particular 
case, although it is regrettable when a former department attorney 
distorts the facts and makes baseless allegations to promote his or her 
agenda," the statement said. 

Adams said Tuesday that his personal views played no part in his 
handling of the case. He also said he did not fight to testify before 
the commission but resigned after the department would not take action 
to quash the subpoena.

CMPQwk 1.42-21 9999 
Hope and change = $1T deficit and 10%+ unemployment .....

--- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10
 * Origin:  (1:226/600)