Former DoJ Official: Who, Me?

It’s amazing what happens when a former Justice Department official sits behind a microphone.

Earlier this week, six veterans of the Civil Rights Division’s voting rights section wrote the Senate Rules Committee to urge that they reject Hans von Spakovsky’s nomination as a commissioner at the Federal Election Commission. The reason, they wrote, was that von Spakovsky had been “the point person for undermining the Civil Rights Division’s mandate to protect voting rights” when he worked at the Justice Department.

Von Spakovsky, they wrote, had been instrumental in overruling career attorneys who objected to voter ID laws — such as the infamous case of Georgia’s 2005 law, which was ultimately blocked by a federal appeals court, likened by the judge to a Jim Crow-era poll tax.

But in his testimony before the panel yesterday, von Spakovsky said they had it all wrong. He was merely one counsel among many there, and when he was asked his opinion, he gave it; he was not “a decision maker.” He nevertheless defended the division’s stances, even though, he argued, they weren’t his decisions to make. Here is under questioning by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) about the Georgia voter ID law:

Joe Rich, the former chief of the voting rights section, and one of the former section employees who wrote the committee about von Spakovsky, told me that von Spakovsky’s minimization of his own role was laughable: “He was the de facto chief of the section.”

One example in particular drove this home, Rich said.

In April of 2005, von Spakovsky wrote to Arizona’s Republican secretary of state to advise that Arizona, which has a strict voter ID law, did not need to offer a provisional ballot to those lacking proof of citizenship under federal law. The advisory could have resulted in a large number of voters being denied the opportunity to vote if they showed up to the polling place without proper ID. It was also wrong. And in September of that year, under pressure from the head of the Election Assistance Commission, von Spakovsky drafted a follow-up correcting the advisory.

Under questioning yesterday by Sen. Dianne Feintstein (D-CA) about this yesterday, von Spakovsky admitted that he’d drafted the letter, which went out under the signature of Sheldon Bradshaw, the former deputy of the Civil Rights Division. But he argued that it had been the result of a collaborative process, looked at by other lawyers in the voting rights section. This was “not me acting by myself,” von Spakovsky said.

Not so, says Rich. “That was just a flat out misrepresentation that he made there,” Rich told me, adding “of all the things he said, I thought that was the most disingenuous, frankly.” Rich, who served in the Civil Rights Division since 1968 and was the chief of the voting section at the time, said that even Alex Acosta, the head of the division at that time, hadn’t seen the letter before it went out. That’s particularly noteworthy because the letter constituted a reversal of the department’s position on provisional ballots. Rich added that Bradshaw, whose signature adorned the letter, had actually left the division a number of days before.* So it’s unclear who, if anyone, von Spakovsky had discussed the letter with.

But that’s not all. As McClatchy reports this morning, von Spakovsky also suffered from the requisite memory failure suffered by Justice Department officials whenever they testify. He couldn’t remember, for example, anything about Minnesota’s U.S. attorney’s request that the division investigate whether barring Native Americans there from using tribal ID cards to vote violated the law — a policy which stemmed from a directive by Minnesota’s Republican secretary of state. The former chief of the Civil Rights Division has said that von Spakovsky spiked any possible investigation, leading to suspicions that the subsequent targeting of the U.S. attorney there, Thomas Heffelfinger (he made one of Kyle Sampson’s famous firing lists), was related to his stance on the ID issue.

Note: For those wondering about von Spakovsky’s chances at getting confirmed. Here’s McClatchy on the issue:

Whether Democrats can derail von Spakovsky’s appointment is unclear.

Feinstein cautioned that “a very serious situation could develop if the Senate fails to confirm at least some” of the four nominees by fall because none of the current commissioners has won Senate approval for a full six-year term.

Another problem for foes of von Spakovsky is that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pushing a home-state candidate, recess appointee Steven Walther of Reno, Nev., and Republicans are likely to put a retaliatory hold on Walther if von Spakovsky is rejected.

*Update: McClatchy reports that Bradshaw signed the letter on his last day on that job.