A spokeswoman for the top federal prosecutor in Nevada has strongly denied to OffTheBus that the F.B.I. or the U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada have had any involvement with the investigation and raid of the Las Vegas offices of voter registration group ACORN, calling the investigation purely a state matter. At the same time, a spokesman for the Nevada Secretary of State and state Attorney General is standing by earlier reports that the investigation involves all members of an interagency election integrity task force that prominently includes the two federal agencies.
The denial of involvement by the federal agencies, and the disagreement between the federal and state members of the task force, are significant because some Democrats, including House Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers, have accused federal law enforcement authorities of turning ACORN into a whipping-boy for partisan attacks, and some Republican operatives, including six senators who renewed their call Friday for the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearings into ACORN's actions, have tried to deflect claims of partisanship by asserting that the Nevada investigation and raid were instigated solely by Democratic state officials. If the U.S. Attorney for Nevada was involved in the investigation there, then its involvement and, even more, its denials would raise serious questions of transparency and revive concerns, currently being explored by an independent prosecutor in connection with similar events following the 2004 election, that prosecutors may be responding to political pressure rather than exercising independent judgment.
The U.S. Attorney for Nevada, Gregory Brower, was appointed by President Bush in 2007. According to a nonpartisan Inspector General report issued earlier this month, his predecessor and seven other federal prosecutors were improperly fired in 2006 by high-ranking Bush Administration officials for refusing to bow to political pressure from Republican Party officials and politicians. According to that report, at least three of those prosecutors were targeted for refusing to prosecute voter fraud cases of the kind now apparently being pursued against ACORN, even after their independent investigations had yielded no evidence of prosecutable crimes, and at least one, David Iglesias of New Mexico, was terminated for refusing to indict an ACORN employee. ACORN also was mentioned in connection with the decision to fire Brower's predecessor in Nevada, although the Inspector General could not find clear evidence of a causal link. An independent prosecutor is now considering whether to issue indictments in connection with those firings.
The disagreement about the role of federal prosecutors in the current ACORN investigation centers around a task force convened last July in Nevada to investigate election integrity issues. On July 2, according to an investigator's affidavit, state officials began an investigation of possible fraudulent registration forms submitted by ACORN employees. Less than a month later, a press release was posted on the websites of both the Nevada Secretary of State (who oversees elections) and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada, announcing the formation of a "multijurisdictional" Election Integrity Task Force whose mission, according to the release, included the investigation of fraudulent voter registrations.
A similar state-federal task force was involved in the investigation of ACORN by Iglesias, the prosecutor who later was fired in New Mexico. In another similarity to the Iglesias case, the Nevada task force appears to have acted at least partly in response to Republican complaints about ACORN.
The press release announcing the creation of the Nevada task force emphasized the involvement of federal law enforcement officials and prosecutors:
The Nevada Secretary of State, the Nevada Attorney General, the United States Attorney's Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation today announced an ongoing collaborative effort targeting voter registration and election fraud. The Election Integrity Task Force will investigate complaints regarding questionable voter registration practices, potential voter fraud, and enforcement of laws regarding voter intimidation.
"If there is any type of fraud or intimidation in any part of the registration or voting process, this task force will be prepared to address it," said Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller, whose responsibilities include that of chief elections officer for Nevada. ***
"The U.S. Attorney's office is pleased to be part of the Election Integrity Task Force, which is committed to ensuring that the November 2008 election is administered fairly in Nevada," said U.S. Attorney Greg Brower. "Our District Election Officer will be working with the Task Force before, during, and following the election to oversee the handling of any complaints of election fraud and voting rights abuses in consultation with Justice Department Headquarters."
"True democracy requires the public to maintain confidence in its voting system," said FBI Special Agent in-Charge Steven Martinez. "This multi-jurisdictional task force will do its part to ensure such confidence, to include the diligent investigation of those who willfully and intentionally violate federal elections laws."
In a telephone conversation Monday with OffTheBus, F.B.I. spokesman David Staretz declined to comment on whether his agency was involved specifically with the ACORN investigation, but did confirm that his agency remains active with the task force:
"Yes, there is a task force that was initiated several months ago. The FBI is part of that task force, it's a joint effort to ensure that the election goes off smoothly without fraud to the best of our abilities, using all of our resources that each agency brings to bear."
On October 7, state officials executed a search warrant on the Las Vegas office of ACORN, seizing the group's files and computers. Press outlets widely reported the raid as a state operation, but Bob Walsh, a spokesman for both the Nevada Secretary of State and (on issues relating to the Election Integrity Task Force) for the state's Attorney General, told OffTheBus at the time that the federal officials' absence at the raid itself did not mean they were uninvolved in the larger investigation:
The ongoing investigation is done as a cooperative effort between those two agencies as well as the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys office, but the FBI and the US Attorney were not there this morning simply because I think they had, you know, manpower issues.... They had other places they needed to be. It wasn't like they needed to surround the place like a SWAT team or anything."
Later the same day, Walsh issued a press release that quoted the Nevada Secretary of State himself as saying that the ACORN raid was the work of the joint task force:
"This is part of an ongoing investigation by the multi jurisdictional task force that we announced this past July," said Miller. "We said then that we would work aggressively to protect the process. We're going to do everything possible to ensure that Nevada's voter rolls are protected and to ensure that only those who are eligible can cast a ballot. The task forced [sic] received information which the investigators further developed.
Last Friday, several Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a letter calling on the chair of that committee, Patrick Leahy (D-VT), to hold hearings into allegations of voter fraud by ACORN. In that letter, the Republican senators characterized the Nevada investigation of ACORN as solely a state-run, and Democratic, initiative:
Contrary to your claim that there is "a pattern" of "Republican politicians" seeking investigations, the facts indicate that there is widespread concern, regardless of political party, with protecting the integrity of our election process. Indeed, earlier this month Nevada Attorney General Ross Miller and Secretary of State Catherine Cortez Masto, both Democrats, initiated a law enforcement raid on ACORN's Las Vegas office due to mounting suspicion of wrongdoing."
To confirm whether that assertion was correct, OffTheBus Friday contacted Natalie Collins, the spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada. Contrary to the press releases and official statements quoted above, but consistent with the Republican senators' assertion, Collins indicated that the investigation and raid of ACORN's Nevada operation was not conducted by the Task Force but solely by the state agencies, and that neither the U.S. Attorney's office nor the F.B.I. were involved in any way. OffTheBus double-checked her position in an email Friday, asking Collins:
What I got from our earlier conversation is that your office is involved on the election integrity interagency task force, along with the NV SOS, NV AG, and FBI. However, the US Attorney's office wasn't involved at all in the investigation of ACORN, the decision to serve a subpoena on ACORN or the raid of its Las Vegas office -- that wasn't the interagency group, but solely the Nevada officials' initiative. You don't think the FBI was involved in that either, but I should check with them before going on the record since you're not their spokesperson.
Collins replied by email:
This is accurate - if there is anything else, I will let you know.
In additional emails exchanged Monday, Collins again asserted that neither the two federal law enforcement agencies, nor the Interjurisdictional Election Integrity Task Force they belong to, were involved in any way with the investigation or raid of ACORN in Nevada:
"The task force was formed to facilitate coordination between agencies, but not every investigation is a 'task force' investigation. The subject investigation is being pursued by the state (SOS office), and the US Department of Justice (FBI and USAO) have not been, and are not, at the present time, involved with it."
That statement appeared to contradict the press release issued by the Nevada Secretary of State on October 7, so OffTheBus double-checked Monday with Bob Walsh, the State of Nevada's spokesman. After confirming that Walsh was not questioning the accuracy of an earlier OTB piece about the federal role in the raid itself, OTB asked for confirmation that the task force was involved in the larger ACORN investigation:
"I was concerned when she [Collins] said you thought I had gotten something wrong. I think the issue was pretty minor -- I had you saying that the USAO and FBI weren't there because of manpower and because they simply weren't needed -- wasn't exactly a SWAT team operation! But that's really a secondary issue, of course -- anyone could have executed a warrant, no big deal.
While I've got you, though, I would like to double-check the accuracy of the press release you issued on Oct. 7, in which Ross Miller is quoted as saying that the investigation of ACORN was by the full task force -- lemme grab the quote -
'This is part of an ongoing investigation by the multi jurisdictional task force that we announced this past July," said Miller. ... The task forced received information which the investigators further developed.'
Is that quote by Miller still good info?"
Walsh responded:
"That quote is still good."
Both the timing of the Election Integrity Task Force's creation less than a month after the state began its investigation of ACORN, and its stated mission, suggest that the entire task force, including the federal agencies, would be involved with the ACORN case as a matter of course. For instance, in the July 31 press release, Nevada's Secretary of State indicated that the Task Force would look at voter registration drives like ACORN's:
"If you register to vote with a person or an organization conducting a registration drive, it's your responsibility to make sure that the application ultimately makes it to the county registrar. The best way to make sure that happens is to personally deliver it or mail it to the registrar, rather than leaving it to some outside group or third party."
The same press release also indicated the Task Force would investigate complaints of individual registration workers filling out multiple, false registration cards -- which is the kind of misconduct ACORN workers are accused of. On the day of the ACORN raid, the Secretary of State's office indicated that the ACORN investigation concerned "allegations that a number of registration applications were completed with false information, and other applications on which [sic] attempted to register the same person multiple times." Similarly, the affidavit used to obtain the ACORN search warrant claimed that ACORN employees had "themselves completed [Voter Registration Application] forms using fictitious and false information and submitted those forms to ACORN, along with legitimately gathered forms" and that "fraudulent applications [were] being made in the name of non-existent people.
Both the Task Force and the ACORN investigation also appear to focus on the practice of paying workers on a piecework basis. The July 31 press release announcing the Task Force indicated it would investigate "citizens being registered to vote by individuals who are paid per application.... It is illegal for registration drive organizers to base compensation on the number of completed applications." Walsh raised the same point on the day of the ACORN raid, telling OffTheBus:
[B]y state law they're not allowed to put a bounty on each application that these people turn in, but at the same time they put some kind of daily quota on it, which is tantamount, I suppose.
Despite this evidence that the Task Force was created for the purpose of investigating precisely the kinds of misconduct that ACORN and its employees are accused of, the U.S. Attorney's spokeswoman, Collins, declined on Monday to offer any explanation for why her office would be involved in election integrity investigations while abstaining from the specific investigation of the group most widely associated with voter registration fraud claims.