Justice Dept. Targets GOP Activists
When I reported on September 19 that partisan career lawyers in the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice were planning on criminally targeting Republican political activists and candidates, this was treated with disbelief by some. In fact, Rick Hasen, a liberal law professor at Loyola who runs the popular Election Law Blog , a website concentrating on voting and election developments, expressed his skepticism “of such anonymous claims.”
Well, those claims have proven all too real to former Republican congressional candidate Tan Nguyen, who ran for office in the 47th Congressional District of California in 2006 against incumbent Loretta Sanchez. On October 1, the Civil Rights Division announced the indictment of Nguyen for obstruction of justice for supposedly making “misleading statements to investigators” regarding a letter that was sent to Latino voters during the election. This investigation and indictment represents a particularly egregious example of the government persecuting someone for engaging in perfectly legal behavior. Essentially, Nguyen is being prosecuted for having informed voters of the truth, although it is a truth disliked by the career lawyers in the Civil Rights Division.
The letter (in Spanish) that is the basis of the indictment was apparently sent out to Latino voters by the California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR). It told voters that if they were a citizen of the United States, they should “participate in the democratic process of voting.” However, the letter warned voters that if they were residing in this country illegally, “voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time” and for which they could be deported. The letter made clear that voting in any election “if you are not a citizen of the United States” would be “useless and dangerous.”
It is important to realize that everything said in this letter is absolutely true. There are a number of federal statutes that make it illegal for someone to falsely claim citizenship when registering to vote or to vote in federal elections if not a citizen. But informing voters that they have to be citizens to vote is highly offensive to the political left, especially organizations like La Raza or MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and their allies in the career ranks of the Civil Rights Division.
As described in the September 19 article, lawyers in the Civil Rights Division said at an internal DOJ training session this summer that they considered sending mailers informing individuals of the citizenship requirement for voting an example of voter “suppression.” Although they acknowledged there was no federal criminal statute making this illegal, they proposed using federal grand juries to go after anyone who engaged in this type of behavior. They have now fulfilled that promise.
At some point, people need to seclude themselves and ask thoughtfully if the government that exists truly legitimate. After that, they must rationalize a way to tolerate it, anyway. ^_^
Until they reach some threshold…
This is completely asinine. These people should be enforcing the laws of the United States, not intimidating people who have the nerve to spell them out. Illegal aliens SHOULD be afraid to vote. They’re criminals! What planet are we on?
Let me see whether I have this straight: pressed by the FBI, Nguyen lied about his involvement in a legal operation. So now he’s likely to be indicted, possibly convicted, for having lied?
When the president of the USA lied about his involvement in a legal recreational activity, he…oh, never mind. I guess it’s the Martha Stewart Principle at work? Er, no, because Stewart was being investigated for criminal activity, while Nguyen was not. — My head hurts….
Lesson 1: Do not talk to the police. Innocent or guilty, shut up and say literally nothing. Do not answer questions, even, “Are you comfortable?”
Lesson 2: Get a lawyer, and follow his advice to the letter.
Lesson 3: We are no longer paranoids. They really ARE out to get us.
Why is anyone surprised? The leftists took over our Justice Department some time ago. George W. Bush is too politically correct to put a stop to this madness. And it is only going to get much worse in a Barack Obama administration. He has every intention of taking away our First Amendment rights. May God help our nation. We are in great danger.
Even in this age of Obamamania this is unbelieveable. People being targeted by the government for stating the law!
This is the beginning of the end of the rule of law in the United States.
These prosecutors should be fired. Bush is asleep at the switch. If Obama is elected POTUS George Bush should pardon Cheney (for all of his non-leftist behavior) and then resign so that Cheney can pardon him. If he doesn’t, then he is a fool.
Stalin had his Cheka to deal with opposition; Obama will have his lawyers.
Amerika is becoming a scary place. With Obama and his minions in control, it could become uninhabitable for conservatives.
You people don’t understand. The Nazi left does not care about the constitution or the rule of law. The only thing that matters is implementing their ideology.
Today that ideology wants 20 million invading wetbacks to get the vote legally. To accomplish this they are perfectly willing to let them vote illegally.
The only thing that will deter these Nazis is jail time or assasination. Nothing else will deter them from their goals.
This is what you get when a nation turns to the pagan/humanist philosophy that the end justifies the means.
20 million illegals voting will turn the country completely socialist. The treasurey will be looted by these savages and prosperity will become a thing of the past. America is being brought down right before your eyes and most Americans don’t see it or are in favor of it.
Canadian style Humans Rights Commissions are next.
Wow! Think maybe FISA may have a new directive come January after Obama is inaugurated? Will we see the advent of a new era of Stalinism when critics of the government under Obama are gathered up and herded into gulags? Will we see the rise of another “Night of the Knives” where political dissenters in America actually are hauled off to jail and their homes and businesses burned by mobs of Obama fanatics? Don’t laugh America. If you stop for one moment and reflect over recent incidents, it is not as far fetched as you might think. St. Louis and the willingness of law enforcement officials to prosecute over political campaigning lies is a prime example of things to come. Truth squads for Obama is nothing new but the tactics have started to spill over into the legal system of America.
This is frightening.
Sounds like the makings of an excellent campaign commercial, one that can get Mr. Nguyen freed: Obama with his “get in their faces” remarks, threats to bloggers at Gateway Pundit (or any of many other sites), the Truth Squad story, the story about how Obama Voters will not tolerate signs on the highway and the indictment of Mr. Nguyen.
The Obama Campaign said that you could tell what kind of president Obama would make by the way he ran his campaign. Can you tell now?
No, it should NOT be run by the McCain campaign. The PUMAs ought to do it.
I think you should address your complaints to the Republican Party.
“Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh, on the other hand, stated that the party executive committee voted unanimously to recommend that Nguyen withdraw from the election. “I learned information that allows me to draw the conclusion that not only was Mr. Nguyen’s campaign involved in this, but that Mr. Nguyen was personally involved in expediting the mailer,” he stated.”
I’m an immigrant. So’s my wife. Legal immigrants.
There’s nothing “anti-immigrant” about that letter.
You guys need to get your facts straight:
“The investigation had found that the original draft of the letter (in English) had warned illegals and those with green cards against voting, but elsewhere had encouraged those with U.S. citizenship to vote. The phrase “those with green cards” had then been translated into “emigrado,” for the Spanish-language letter that was mailed; this had later been translated back into English as “immigrant” when the letter was brought to light in the media.”
Nguyen was indited because he lied about knowing about the letter not for the content of the letter – kinda’ like good ol’ Bill C.
And we’re all supposed to suprised by this because…?
This is very similar to the tactic that the Left used in order to charge Scooter Libby in the Plame leak investigation. In that case, prosecutors knew from the very beginning that Plame’s so-called “undercover” status was leaked by Iraq War critic Richard Armitage, but instead of stopping the investigation right there, they kept the case open. Why? There’s only one plausible explanation: so that they could continue questioning Bush administration officials in the hope that one of them would slip up under questioning and make a statement that could be construed as false or misleading. Et voila…Libby?
Want proof that this is what happened? Just look at the muted response to the commuted sentence that Libby received. After all the uproar the Left raised about “national security”…after all the teeth-gnashing and cries of “Fascism!”…a Bush administration official is convicted, his sentence is commuted, and everyone who was clamoring for blood just shrugs their shoulders and says “heh”. Does that make any sense at all?
Of course not. The only reason they let it go so easily is that they knew that pushing the point further would lead to the general public getting the truth about what a complete sham the whole case had been all along: from Joe Wilson’s lies…to the so-called “secret agent” who drove from her house to the CIA HQ everyday…to Richard Armitage.
I shudder to think about what the apathetic stupidity of so many Americans is about to unleash on this country.
Purple ink on the fingers on election day!
We can complain about these attacks on political speech all we want, at least until January 2009. But, after that, we will need a strategy to fight them, a strategy other than writing anonymous articles.
Off the top of my head, I would recommend going on the offensive. Can a federal court enjoin a baseless DOJ investigation intentionally designed to chill facially pure political speech? Aren’t DOJ training sessions which develop and implement strategies to intimidate targets who have committed no crimes purely on the basis of the content of protected political speech akin to crimimal conspiracies?
Even putting aside the more conventional claims arising under theories of protected free speech and entrapment, it would seem to me that our civil rights and anti-organized crime statutes and jurisprudence give us ample opportunites to challenge these DOJ abuses. There are lawyers out there reading this blog who know far more about these things than I do. They should be posting.
Of course, standing up to the DOJ will require national organization, money, and a willingness to risk our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. The first two are easy and unavoidable; we must match the left-wingers’ willingness to organize and spend money. As for the willingness to risk life, limb and social position, brave young men of the current generation have sacrificed more than that for us.
what on earth is your point Cichawoda?
What a legacy Bush leaves: Norm Mineta, who fined airlines if too many Muslims were subjec to secondary searches; a justice department indicting peole for sending a poorly translated letter–but ignoring massive efforts to illegaly register non-voters in Ohio; an FDIC and SEC as vigilant as the admiral at Pearl Harbor; and a Republican nominee who painfully fumbles and bumbles his way thru a campaign as if he’d never thought of half the questions he’s asked.
Joe the Plumber would have done better.
Just remember-Free Speech is not Free!
We are in for some interesting and scary times.
There is corruption all the way up to the Justice Dept.,so what do we expect?Wake up America,it’s time to find out what’s going on with our freedom.
Maybe Shakespeare was correct with regard to lawyers esp. those in the Justice Dept’s Civil Rights (sic) Division.
Wasn’t Martha Stewart example enough? Scooter Libby?
Congress has made it a crime to lie to a Federal Agent. It’s no crime for them to lie to you. It is not a crime to refuse to speak to them. There is no upside.
“I’m from the FBI.”
“Do you have a warrant? No? Goodbye.”
I dunno on this, but I thought the law was about lying to a Fed during the investigation of an actual crime. No crime, no foul.
The people need to rise up and force out these far-left charlatans who have hijacked their country. Do it before Obama takes away your guns, or you won’t be able to do it at all
Though the Dems have wasted plenty of time trying to make a scandal out of Bush’s firing of few U.S. Attorneys it’s painfully obvious that there are hundreds of pink slips that still need to be issued immediately.
Need I remind my fellow conservatives just
who it is that resides in the White House,
and therefore has had the authority over
the Justice department these last eight
years?
Anonymous,
I’ve looked through the news archives and came across this:
“On May 16, 2007, the Department of Justice investigation determined that there was no evidence that Nguyen’s campaign had an intent to intimidate those legally entitled to vote. The investigation had found that the original draft of the letter (in English) had warned illegals and those with green cards against voting, but elsewhere had encouraged those with U.S. citizenship to vote. The phrase “those with green cards” had then been translated into “emigrado,” for the Spanish-language letter that was mailed; this had later been translated back into English as “immigrant” when the letter was brought to light in the media.
Senior Assistant Attorney General David Schons stated that the investigation found that Nguyen did in fact know about the letter before it was mailed, in contradiction to Nguyen’s repeated assertions that he was not aware of it. Nguyen, who continued to deny involvement with the letter, in other respects stated satisfaction with the investigation results, and considered himself “exonerated”.”
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/westminster/article_1697421.php
Please tell Anonymous if he truly prefers anonymity to delete his posting on his own site. The first half of the article is practically identical to what he’s written here. If he’s using wit, forgive my presumptions. Either way, good article and keep up the quality research are intelligent writing.
We are all Joe the Plumber!
The Democrat politics of personal destruction are at it again.
David Thomson
it’as nice to see you regurgitate the usual “it’s never Bush’s fault” shabby excuse about Justice. But if you are right, then what does that say about the incompetence of Bush? Oh, that’s right, there are closet Dems that Clinton left behind running the White House too.
Bart,
Please take your meds as prescribed and lay off the booze and bud too. You paranoid delusions are as common as they are silly.
martha stewart lied
Tan Nguyen lied
both should be/get convicted.
Yep! Nguyen lied; Martha Stewart lied; Bill Clinton lied; Harry Reid lied; Nancy Pelosi lied; John Murtha lied; Charles Rangel lied; Barney Frank lied; Obama lied;
What’s your point, nick?
I think it is great that conservative are ready to throw out our “partisan” Justice Department, that has been staffed by the Bush Administration.
Wasn’t it Monica Goodling who admitted to screening “liberals” from applying to the DOJ?
How about the illegal firing of the Attorneys General?
What a bunch of babies, stop trying to take America down with your party. Democracy is about the peaceful transfer of power.
You are the exact “kooks” that the late William F. Buckley warned about.
Obama the Marxist Messiah
Proof is in the Public Record.
“The public record is our only proof,” says former Naval Intelligence Officer Marion Valentine.
“In 1963, while serving in Navy Intelligence (1958-1967), I read the FBI file on Frank Marshall Davis. He had outlined the Communist plan to take over America from within, by installing educators at all levels of our educational system, gaining control of the media, getting Liberal judges appointed, recruiting, training and backing people to be elected to public office.
“I have researched every piece of legislation I can find that the Liberal Democrats have passed since the early sixties, and if you will research for yourself, you will find that they have been slowly moving this country toward Socialism.
“When Obama announced he was running for President as an unknown with only one major speech at the DNC (that the DNC and MSM made so much fuss over), he aroused my old intel suspicions. So I started researching.
“I have not found any evidence to convince me he is a Muslim, bur I did find his radical associations were unusual. I found Frank Marshall Davis, who had fled from Chicago to Hawaii when Obama was 12 years old, was Obama’s mentor from then till Davis died in 1987.
“Davis put Obama in touch with the Socialist Party in Chicago (called the New Party) which Ayers is also a member of, (emphasis added) therefore the first “Planned” contact with Ayers. The New Party helped launch and finance Obama’s political career. Obama…selected, trained, groomed and scripted to become the “puppet” leader of the United Socialist States of America.
Contrast this with a recent NYT editorial stating that the “real” voting crime was NOT voter registration fraud, but that “one third of people eligible to vote do not” and you see where we are heading in this country. The Obammunists are hell-bent on getting everything resembling a human being (living or otherwise) registered to vote, regardless of eligibility. There are two dynamics at work here, the most obvious being that those who unqualified, clueless, or indifferent to the voting process are more likely to cast their ballot for the liberal Democrats who promise them handouts at the expense of the taxpayers. The second one is IMHO far more sinister, and that is the steady campaign since 2000 to deligitimize and discredit the voting process in order to get the judiciary involved in the electoral process. The Florida debacle was the first attempt at this tactic, but initiated with the idea of indoctrinating the populace into expecting regular accusations, challenges, and rulings from the bench. We have seen how insidious the Left is as getting the judiciary to overturn legislation on spurious claims of being “unconstitional”. Once all elections are deligitimized and we have politically appointed judges deciding on the winner, we’re doomed…
@ No 40 NC
“How about the illegal firing of the Attorneys General?”
The attorneys general serve at the pleasure of the president. There was nothing illegal about their firing.
“What a bunch of babies, stop trying to take America down with your party. Democracy is about the peaceful transfer of power.”
If a liberal was being questioned by the FBI merely for stating the law, you would be furious. You are very selective in your view as to who should benefit from who law. In a democracy the rule of law applies to everyone, including and especially those who are empowered to uphold the law. The conduct of these DOJ and FBI officials is outrageous.
They should be fired for abusing the powers of their office and charged with conspiring to deprive Nguyen of his civil rights.
Obama and his leftist illuminati cronies are using the mainstream media to continue to paint him as the savior of America. The media has turned its back for the past 20 months on all of Obama’s indiscretions, but what should we expect?
the leftists in this country are not worthy of the America that was founded 230+ years ago… I see no reason why we cant throw them out with the illegals. Start with Ayers, Obama and Wright..then CNN MSNBC and CBS
This is total chickenshit and moreover a total waste of time and resources. The candidate writes a factually true letter and gets prosecuted? What is happening to this country?
The title “Civil Rights Division” signifies to me a corrupt ideoglogically driven group of power-junkies.
tell ME -WHY DO WE EVEN HAVE CAREER BUREAUCRATS? THESE ACTIONS OUND LIKE THE NKVD(NOW THE KGB OR FSS) UNDER THE LIKES OF LAVRENTI BERIYA IN STALINS USSR. THESE “LAWYERS” USE THERE POSITIONS FOR POLITICAL GAIN? WHY SHOULD I BE SURPRISED. LAWYERS<”ACADEMIANS(BILL AYERS,WARD CHURCHILL,BERNADINE DOHRN,MARK RUDD,CORNELL WEST,ANGELA DAVIS,THIS KARENGA CHARACTER WHO STARTED KWANZAA,THE IDIOT MILES BRAND WHO RUNS THE ACADEMIC CURRICULUM FOR THE NCAA). IM BEGINNING TO THINK GOING AYN RANDS ROUTE MAY BE THE SOLUTION. TIME TO INTRODUCE JOHN GALT TO THESE SCUM.
http://tinyurl.com/6o98qc – does this say anything to you guys?
Cichawoda,
It tells me there’s a good chance that America can possibly turn into a banana republic, and Obama, and ACORN, and a corrupted DOJ are just the ones to make it happen.
I’m retired from practice now, but if I were still advising clients, I would counsel them not to say, “Good morning, Mr. Special Agent,” for fear that one’s wristwatch might be off and it were actually in the afternoon..
Back in the day, seasoned investigators shied away from such “sour grapes” prosecutions on the grounds that winesses would simply stop talking to them. As noted above, that is the logical consequence of busting people for mistatements in interviews.
“When I reported on September 19 that partisan career lawyers in the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice were planning on criminally targeting Republican political activists and candidates . . . ”
They should only be targeting Democratic/ACORN activists. Unfortunately, the ham-handed approach by the Bush DoJ drew media and Congressional scrutiny so they had to even the score. In the unlikely event McCain wins, he should fire or reassign (preferably to that old FBI favorite, Butte MT or anywhere in Alaska) every disloyal DoJ attorney or make their life so miserable they just quit.
I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat but a true Independent who believes in facts and really believes in learning the lessons of our history.
So here is a simple fact for America -
1) During Ronald Reagan’s Presidency of 2 terms, between 1981-1989, we were at our economic best in a quarter of a century. We made the right choice in these 8 years as a country.
2) During George H. W. Bush Sr.’s Presidency of 1 term, between 1989-1993, we were at our economic worst in a quarter of a century. We made a huge mistake as a country but corrected it by keeping him in office for only 1 term.
3) During Bill Clinton’s Presidency of 2 terms, between 1993-2001, we were again at our economic best in a quarter of a century, even better than Reagan’s era. We made the right choice again in these 8 years as a country, despite his personal scandals.
4) Now, during George W. Bush Jr.’s Presidency of 2 terms, between 2001-this coming January 20, 2009; we have been at our economic worst in a quarter of a century, even worst than Bush Sr.’s era. We really made a huge mistake as a country on this one by not realizing that the apple really doesn’t fall very far from the tree. Yet we chose this apple again the second time around.
Now, really let this simple fact sink in America and take your time to think carefully this time around about how you want the direction of this country to go.
We made history with Reagan. We then made a mistake with Bush Sr. but corrected history by allowing him to only serve 1 term. We then made history again with Clinton, despite his personal scandals. Now, we have made 2 mistakes with Bush Jr. by allowing him to serve not once, but twice. So my last question to America is, guess which candidate shares the interests of both, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr.? I will let America answer this one. We are much, much smarter as a country to want to make history rather than make mistakes and to suffer yet again from our own mistakes by not using objectivity as our first and foremost agenda.
What people don’t understand is why some of us are so against the current Republican ticket, but we have an obligation to fight against history of ever being repeated again. Many of us out here are not fighting for the Democratic campaign but are fighting against an ideology.
1) An ideology that completely mirrors the ideology of this past 8 years.
2) An ideology that recognizes the few while completely disregarding the masses.
3) An ideology that believes in taking military action against Iraq, an incident that is completely unrelated to 9/11, without solidifying our claims beforehand. In the present, we have found no evidence of weapons of mass destructions or a tie to Osama Bin Laden. The devastation of this war has cost us over 4,000 of our brave troops and counting, over 1/2 trillion dollars of taxpayer’s money and counting, and over 1 million Iraqi lives unrelated to the terrorists or insurgency.
Cost of the Iraq War — http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home
4) An ideology that still believes that the Iraq War is the right war on terrorism when the Afghanistan War should had been the right war on terrorism, where Osama Bin Laden actually was until he slipped into the mountains and into Pakistan’s territory now. The Iraq War also diverted our attention away from the Afghanistan War. We now have extended our resources in two separate places and have heightened our risk to our troops, our expenses, and creating another dilemma that will take quite some time to finalize. The Iraq War will not go away overnight and it is now our obligation to see it all the way through for God knows how many more years. This has also been the most unpopular war in the eyes of the world’s communities.
5) An ideology that believes that we are at our safest state since 9/11, when a recent terrorist plot was still trying to enter Great Britain’s airports with liquid explosives heading directly to us, but thankfully the plot was foiled. While in Afghanistan, the terrorists are regrouping and strengthening and we have recently suffered another high casualty to our troops yet again within this past month. We currently have the least amount of alliances in the world’s communities due to this unpopular Iraq War. True national securities are the ties that bind us to our world’s communities and the ties that bind them to us.
6) An ideology that vetted one of the most inexperience VP ticket in history, from foreign policies to national defense. If God forbids that anything happens to this President if elected and is stricken with illness, this VP will be running the country. For a more compelling look at Sarah Palin’s VP readiness, please look at these links below —
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loUHRv3ipLE
http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/election_2008/2008/09/30/palin_gaffes/
7) An ideology that believes in “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” while we are facing the highest mortgage foreclosure crisis, high unemployment rate, and the largest collapse of our financial infrastructures since The Great Depression of 1929.
This is an ideology that many of us in America are against. Whether this ideology is in the Republican or Democratic ticket is not the main issue but the fact is that America does not want to fall into another 4 more years of devastation. We cannot afford this anymore.
Jeff’s previous posts fail in several aspects.
His first post makes the mistake of equating correlation with causation. It completely fails to take into account events outside of the political entities control. Reagan’s policies were good in that he lowered rates and regulation that were WAY to high. It’s easy to perform when your predecessor was such a failure. G.H.W. Bush got caught in a short correction after a big run up and the Dems spun it their way. Oh Well. Clinton’s greatest achievements, where the PC productivity revolution, and getting a Newt lead GOP congress elected. (i.e. he acheived nothing.) G.W. Bush got stuck with 9/11, the dot-com bust, 8 years of kick-the-can foreign policy that was about to let Saddam Hussein free to run wild, and the Dem created poison in out financial system (mandated sub-prime loans). He had to do this with through a storm of some of the most dishonest demagoguery in American political history. He was a long way from perfect, but he did alot of good while fighting alot of bad.
Post 2 was nothing more than leftist/Obama talking posts. Blind dangerous ideology is in spite of all the facts stating it would be better had Saddam been allowed to get off the hook, rebuild his WMD programs, continue his reign of terror, and roll the dice WMD did not pass through his other well known terror connections into an attack in Europe, Israel, or here in American. I realize he did not state it that way, but that was a very real possible outcome had HIS ideology taken the day.
And many of us in America will take Palin over Biden or Obama any day.