Republicans in the US House Of Representatives are raising questions about Attorney General Eric Holder’s dismissal of voter intimidation charges against members of the Philadelphia New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense despite video evidence that appears to show Party members discouraging open voting last November.
As first reported here on Election Day 2008, men dressed in Black Panther Party garb, at least one wielding a night stick, were accused of blocking access to the polling place and making threatening statements to the white voters who tried to enter.
[The individuals] were blocking white voters from entering a polling place in Philadelphia while complaining that they were “tired of White Supremacy” and stating “a black man is going to win this election no matter what.”
Holder’s Justice Department dropped the voter intimidation charges in May, ignoring evidence and an affidavit by Democrat civil rights activist Bartle Bull, a poll watcher who described how he watched the uniformed Party members “confront and intimidate voters with a nightstick.”
The Party members, New Black Panther Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz, Minister King Samir Shabazz and Jerry Jackson, refused to attend court to answer the charges for five months.
Since the politically motivated dismissal of the charges, Attorney General Holder has ignored repeated requests for information by members of Congress who oversee the Department of Justice.
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said Holder has ignored at least three letters sent over the past month from Republicans demanding to know why Justice dismissed charges of voter intimidation filed against two members of the “New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense” (NBPP).
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Wolf, ranking member of the House Judiciary subcommittee that funds Justice, has called on Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) to hold a hearing into the matter. He said one of the Black Panther members was allegedly carrying a local Democratic committee card.
In a letter to Conyers, Wolf wrote that Justice’s inaction ‘merits congressional attention, if only to force the department to explain its decision to dismiss this case.”
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the ranking Republican on Judiciary, also said the dismissal raises questions about politicization at Justice.
“The American people need to know that the Justice Department takes seriously cases of voter intimidation, regardless of the political party of the defendants,” Smith said.
A Justice Department spokesperson said “facts and the law did not support pursuing the claims against three of the defendants.”
Video reports from Election Day are below. Readers can judge for themselves whether the evidence, combined with the defendants’ refusal to answer the charges, “support pursuing the claims.”
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