| Show Policy skirted in ere-election ere indictments I Richard A. A Serrano Los Angeles Times The Department of Justice skirted federal policy guidelines to allow the indictment of four liberal activists on voter fraud charges shortly before Novembers November's midterm election in Missouri a former US U.S. attorney told a Senate investigative panel Tuesday Bradley J. J who was the interim US U.S. attorney in Kansas City last year also advised the Senate Judiciary Committee that he did not believe the indictments helped Republicans in the election As it turned out a Democrat Claire McCaskill beat the incumbent Republican Jim Talent in the US U.S. Senate race in Missouri Committee Democrats are trying to show that the White House and Justice Department have played politics with the US U.S. attorneys' attorneys offices They arc are investigating the firing last year of eight top prosecutors and whether the dismissals were part of ofa a plan to replace them with attorneys who were more willing to bring criminal cases that would help Republican causes In Kansas City the US U.S. attorneys attorney's office had long been investigating the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN and its efforts to register liberal voters Todd Graves who earlier was was US U.S. attorney for the western district of Missouri testified Tuesday that he was aware of the department policy against bringing voter-related voter charges right before an election The policy spelled out in a red handbook given to all US U.S. attorneys states that this kind of case must await the end of the election so it cannot be later suggested that prosecutors were trying to influence the vote results I thought it was a bad idea Graves said about bringing the charges against ACORN before the election So we were sort of walking slow-walking this in the district He said that in early 2006 he received a phone call from Michael Battle then head of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys and was told to resign Graves said he was not surprised he was being removed I long planned to go and it was the presidents president's prerogative Graves said He added that Battle told him there were no performance problems in his office but just that it was to give another guy a chance Graves was replaced by then a Justice official in Washington who had no trial experience Less than a week before the November election obtained grand jury indictments against four members of ACORN for allegedly submitting fraudulent voter registrations who now works in the main Justice office in Washington said he sought the indictments after first getting approval from department officials who advised him that the case would not influence the upcoming election But said he also was directed by Washington to release a statement about the indictments and to include that the charges were part of a national investigation into voter fraud He added that several Republican groups immediately released their own statements about the indictments suggesting that Democrats were trying to steal the election with voter registration abuse Several Senate Democrats expressed anger at how the episode played out in Missouri with Sen Patrick J. J Leahy of Vermont the Judiciary Committee chairman arguing that Republicans like in the Justice Department ignored their own guidelines to advance their conservative ideology Holding aloft a copy of the red handbook Leahy told You Vou used this more for a doorstop that anything else |
