Report Finds Acorn Broke No Laws
Leroy N. Soetoro
The controversial community organizing group Acorn has not broken any
laws in the last five years, according to a Congrssional Research
Service report released Tuesday evening.
The report, requested by Representative John Conyers, Democrat of
Michigan, said that federal agencies, mainly the Departments of Justice
and Housing and Urban Development, have awarded money to the group 48
times since 2005. But, in none of those instances did Acorn violate the
terms of their funding, the report said.
Since the 2008 elections, the group, which works primarily to expand
voter registration and affordable housing, has become a key Republican
target. A series of scandals brought to light by conservative activists
led to multiple Congressional hearings and repeated attempts to deny it
taxpayer funding.
Acorn has been the subject of scores of investigations�a total of 46
inquiries by federal, state, and local agencies, including the FBI and
the Treasury Department, and five by Congress as of October 2009,
according to the report.
The report found no evidence that voters attempting to cast ballots at
the polls had been improperly registered by Acorn, a chief Republican
accusation.
The report also said that a sting-style effort to publicize the group�s
allegedly illegal activities, may have broken state laws. Two
conservative activists set off a firestorm in September when they posed
as a pimp and a prostitute seeking financial advice and secretly
videotaped Acorn employees offering advice on how the couple could hide
their illicit activities and avoid paying taxes.
Also on Tuesday, a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, rejected the
administration�s request to reconsider its ruling that a House
resolution barring the group from receiving federal funding was
unconstitutional. Earlier this month a judge ruled that the law
constituted a �bill of attainder,� legislation intended to punish
specific people or groups.
In November the Justice Department also concluded that the Obama
administration can legally pay the group.
--
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact, to
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel of New York's
million dollar tax evasion. Charles B. Rangel is still under
"investigation" by a "closed door" House Ethics Committee.
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ne...@netfront.net ---