Barack Obama's presidential campaign is pressuring the Department of Justice to put off a probe of voter registration fraud allegations leveled against the now infamous liberal group ACORN.
Lawyers for the Obama campaign have written U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, asking him to delay any investigations of voter fraud until after the election. The Obama campaign's general counsel, Robert Bauer, says the FBI should instead be investigating those who have lodged complaints of voter registration fraud against groups like ACORN. Bauer contends that concerns about voter registration fraud are "manufactured allegations" being used to intimidate and disenfranchise low-income voters. (See earlier article on ACORN)
Former Oklahoma Republican Congressman Ernest Istook is a distinguished fellow for government relations at the Heritage Foundation. He says the Obama campaign is encouraging ACORN to continue its "nefarious" conduct.
"They're saying that they think that there's a plot between the McCain campaign and the Justice Department to suppress voter turnout by complaining about voting fraud and irregularities in registration, and so forth," says Istook.
"Naturally, they pooh-pooh the very notion of the problems that have been uncovered -- hundreds of thousands of questionable voter registrations, [including] one man in Ohio who says ACORN got him to register to vote 72 different times."
Istook says ACORN and "its minions" represent a large part of the Obama base, so the senator's camp is trying to keep them motivated by standing up for them and "showing them they have will have a friend and a protector in the White House."
U.S. criminal statutes say that someone who either is involved in a voter registration fraud effort or casts a fraudulent vote himself could receive up to five years in prison
Lawyers for the Obama campaign have written U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, asking him to delay any investigations of voter fraud until after the election. The Obama campaign's general counsel, Robert Bauer, says the FBI should instead be investigating those who have lodged complaints of voter registration fraud against groups like ACORN. Bauer contends that concerns about voter registration fraud are "manufactured allegations" being used to intimidate and disenfranchise low-income voters. (See earlier article on ACORN)
Former Oklahoma Republican Congressman Ernest Istook is a distinguished fellow for government relations at the Heritage Foundation. He says the Obama campaign is encouraging ACORN to continue its "nefarious" conduct.
"They're saying that they think that there's a plot between the McCain campaign and the Justice Department to suppress voter turnout by complaining about voting fraud and irregularities in registration, and so forth," says Istook.
"Naturally, they pooh-pooh the very notion of the problems that have been uncovered -- hundreds of thousands of questionable voter registrations, [including] one man in Ohio who says ACORN got him to register to vote 72 different times."
Istook says ACORN and "its minions" represent a large part of the Obama base, so the senator's camp is trying to keep them motivated by standing up for them and "showing them they have will have a friend and a protector in the White House."
U.S. criminal statutes say that someone who either is involved in a voter registration fraud effort or casts a fraudulent vote himself could receive up to five years in prison
