GOP Voter Fraud Bigwig Complained to White House about Canned U.S. Attorney

[Coexist]

from TPM Muckraker

The case for Republican voter fraud complaints being at the root of yet another U.S. attorney firing just got a lot stronger.

The U.S. attorney here is Todd Graves, the U.S. attorney for Kansas City who was fired in January of last year. And Murray Waas, reporting for National Journal, reports that Mark "Thor" Hearne, the GOP operative behind the American Center for Voting Rights -- the conservative organization that served to spread allegations of widespread voter fraud and push voter ID laws as the cure -- had complained to the White House and senior officials in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division about Graves' lack of commitment to the cause:

In the case involving ACORN, Hearne had urged the Justice Department long before the election to investigate the activist organization and similar groups that registered Democrats. When Hearne came to believe that the U.S. attorney for western Missouri, Todd Graves, was not taking seriously allegations that ACORN workers were registering people who did not qualify to vote, he took his complaints to senior officials in Justice’s Civil Rights Division and to the White House, according to a former Justice official and a private attorney who worked with Hearne. The private attorney said in an interview that Hearne boasted to him about having discussions with administration officials who wanted Graves replaced. The White House declined to comment on any of its discussions with Hearne.

Waas notes that there's no direct evidence that Hearne's complaints led to Graves' dismissal. But Graves' case is starting to look a lot like two others that have drawn plenty of suspicion: David Iglesias of New Mexico and John McKay of Washington. In both those cases, state Republicans' brought their complaints to the White House and the leadership at the Justice Department. In Iglesias' case, both the president and Karl Rove himself echoed those complaints to the Justice Department.

Ya gotta' read the whole thing - and follow the links to ElectionLaw and the McClatchy article- great stuff awaits!

[L. Coyote]

1. Slowly, the stonewall of deception is crumbling

First, the DoJ issue seemed to have a "voter fraud" spin.

Carol Lam had zero, zip, nada to do with voter fraud.
In her case, another excuse had been spun out to confuse, the
coyote issue, initially called illegal immigration. The Rs in the
Goodling hearing was the first usage of "coyote" I noted. Rep. Issa
was the one who leaked false info on Carol Lam before the Cunningham
case saw the light of public press. This timeline needs more review. But,
the digging deeper led to Medicare fraud when the Missouri firing came out.

5/06: Missouri attorney a focus in USA firings = Bradley Schlozman
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x832164

And there was a ton of spin in the "voter fraud" direction that did not
fit very well. Yes, there was the actual case of four individuals being
charged. It was such a stretch to think that this was going to alter
the result of the Presidential election; compared to the Ohio purges,
long lines, vote-switching, recount fraud, and long list of shenanigans,
the "firing" of the Missouri USA attribution to voter fraud seemed spin-ish.

And, there were some really big fish and big $$$$$$$ in the Missouri corruption pond.
In fact, the public corruption fishing hole everywhere seems to be the biggest pond.
Governor Matt Blunt tried to prevent the USA's office from investigating his
family's scandals by putting the wife of USA Todd Graves on the Blunt Family payroll
to the tune of a cool half million dollars a year, and he used taxpayer dollars to do it.
It was reported that USA Todd Graves and his family will personally benefit from no-bid
state contracts valued at more than $3.6 million given by Missouri Governor Matt Blunt.

Another connection came to light in Missouri, the investigation of Medicare fraud.
In both Missouri and California, Tenet Healthcare was a target bilking billions.

5/09: US Attorney Firing: Voter Fraud, Medicare Fraud, WHICH IS IT ???
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x853813

Suddenly, instead of "four" activists being indicted just before an election, the number
had jumped to "five" to "six" billion dollars in fraud agains hospitals and taxpayers.
Also suddenly, the number of USAs involved in the investigation jumped to "thirty."

5/13: 30 U.S. attorneys investigate BILKING BILLIONS, Medicare, Medicaid, Military’s Healthcare
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph

And 50 USAs wanted to investigate the oil industry and price gouging!!
Other big numbers fit into the puzzle and connect surprising pieces.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying spent by single entities, billions spent by sectors!!
Now we are really talking about some very big fish in the pond. They tip the scale.



This is a complex story. Are whoopers still being spun by big fish, pointing to little fish?

=====================================
LEGAL AFFAIRS
The Scales Of Justice
By Murray Waas, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/070531nj1.htm

In the closing weeks of Missouri's tight 2006 U.S. Senate race, the U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., took the unusual step of revealing that his office's investigation into possible state government contracting abuses in Missouri had found no evidence of wrongdoing by Republican Gov. Matt Blunt. .......