Washington Examiner:

Judicial Watch finds DOJ document that shows Obama politico involved in New Black Panther decision
UPDATED!
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
09/20/10 11:28 AM EDT

Democratic election lawyer and Obama political appointee Samuel Hirsch was deeply involved in the Justice Department decision to drop the federal prosecution of two Philadelphia New Black Panthers for voting rights violations in the 2008 president election, according to documents identified by Judicial Watch.

The documents describe eight email exchanges between Hirsch, who is Deputy Associate Attorney General, and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Steve Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum is a career attorney in DOJ.

The involvement of Hirsch in the decision contradicts sworn testimony by Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

In response to a direct question from Commissioner Peter Kirsanov about political appointees influencing the decision to drop the New Black Panther prosecution, Perez responded by saying: "No. The decisions were made by Loretta King in consultation with Steve Rosenbaum, who is the Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General."

Judicial Watch discovered the existence of the email exchanges between Hirsch and Rosenbaum as a result of a DOJ-compiled Vaughn Index in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The index describes documents that were not provided in an FOIA response by a federal department or agency.

The Vaughn Index listing, according to Judicial Watch, said the denied documents the non-profit had requested included:

"An 'Email Chain with Attachments' from Rosenbaum to Hirsch dated April 30, 2009: The email chain includes '&hellipa detailed response and analysis of the proposed draft filings in NBPP (New Black Panther Party) litigation&hellipThe response includes a candid assessment of legal research and raises questions about the case law and proposed relief&hellip.This document also contains attorney discussion, opinions, and analyses of the draft documents and case law.'”

The Judicial Watch discovery is likely to fuel new controversy about the case that arose from this video of two New Black Panthers at a Philadelphia area polling place.



“These documents show the Obama Justice Department’s decision to drop the Black Panther case was certainly political and potentially corrupt,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “The Black Panther decision is a scandal for the Obama administration and it merits serious attention by investigators. Assistant Attorney General Perez seems to have been less than candid in his sworn testimony when he said no political appointees were involved in the decision. This scandal has just gotten a whole lot worse for the Obama Justice Department.”

UPDATE: More from J. Christian Adams

J. Christian Adams, the former DOJ attorney who resigned in protest of the New Black Panther decision, offers more details on just how partisan a figure is Hirsch:

"Sam Hirsch is a former Democratic Party operative, and one of the most partisan election law attorneys in the entire nation. He worked for the Democratic Party in numerous redistricting fights, trying to squeeze every last drop of partisan advantage from plans in places like Texas. He has led efforts to impose racial divisions on Hawaii by creating native classifications and powers — and he is proud of it. He was heavily involved in the Obama presidential campaign.

"As deputy associate attorney general — a senior Obama political appointee — Hirsch emerges in the privilege logs as the fulcrum around which the New Black Panther case was dismissed. Throughout April and May 2009, Civil Rights Division political appointee Steve Rosenbaum engaged in extensive legal analysis with Hirsch.

"In turn, Hirsch had extensive communications with Associate Attorney General Perrelli about the case. The emails are sometimes described as 'deliberations' between the senior political appointees. These are deliberations which the DOJ inferred never existed. Nothing more than a dispute between civil servants, they repeated without equivocation."

For more from Adams, who has written about the case for The Examiner and other conservative publications, go here to his column on Pajamas Media. His analysis is devastating of the degree to which DOJ officials, including the department's chief media spokesman, misrepresented the facts about political involvement in the case.

UPDATE II: Next step for Judicial Watch is negotiating with DOJ to release more documents

JIll Farrell, a spokesman for Judicial Watch, tells The Examiner that the next step in the case will be a face-to-face dickering session with DOJ:

"Our lawyers will discuss the withholdings with DOJ and, if we can't come to an agreement, ask the court at some point to order the release of those documents that we think should be subject to disclosure," Farrell said.

A status conference with the court is scheduled for 10/05/10. The case is being heard before U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton (here in DC).

Walton was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush. The DOJ attorneys might want to think twice about messing with Walton, judging by this passage in a 2007 profile of him in The Washington Post:

"For Walton, obeying the law is a bit personal. He was on his way to becoming a dangerous thug himself while growing up in the gritty steel town of Donora, Pa.

"While his father was busy working two jobs, Walton landed in court three times for fights he and his friends got into with competing 'crews' over territory and girls. Walton credits an ice-pick stabbing, when his friend nearly killed a rival, with steering his life away from trouble and toward the bench. He quit fighting, hit the books and won a football scholarship to college, then studied law.

"In the fall of 2005, the judge showed that he still had some street skills. While driving his wife and teenage daughter to the airport for a family vacation early one morning, he came across a man beating up a cabdriver at Chevy Chase Circle. The 5-foot-9-inch Walton tackled the 6-foot attacker and subdued him until police arrived."

For more on Walton from the Post, go here.