Justice Department Flunky Denies White House Involvement in Tactis to Suppress the Black Vote in 2004

May 24, 2007

As research director at the Republican National Committee, U.S. attorney Tim Griffin was involved in a plan to suppress Florida votes — primarily those of African-American servicemembers — in the 2004 election. From the LA Times, 10/28/04:

The Bush campaign is planning an election day effort to disrupt ballot casting by African Americans by challenging voters whose names are on a “caging list,” according to a British news report.

Citing an internal GOP e-mail with the subject line “caging,” the BBC reported Tuesday that Florida Republicans had a list of 1,886 names and addresses of voters in largely black and traditionally Democratic areas of Jacksonville. …

But African American leaders Wednesday called the list another “shameful” Republican effort to keep blacks from voting.

In her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee today, Monica Goodling — the Justice Department’s former White House liaison — tried to dismiss the voter suppression allegations against Griffin, a protege of Karl Rove, by calling caging just “a direct-mail term.”

Caging is not just a “direct mail term.” Suppressing votes on the basis of race is illegal under the federal Voting Rights Act.

Congressional sources told ThinkProgress that the White House decided to not put Griffin before the Senate Judiciary Committee for approval because it would bring up questions about the 2004 caging scheme.

Transcript:

    GOODLING: Ok, and the last thing was the voter — the caging issue, which was a reference to Tim Griffin.

    SANCHEZ: Can you explain what “caging” is? I’m not familiar with that term.

    GOODLING: My understanding — and I don’t actually know a lot about it — is that it’s a direct-mail term, that         people who do direct mail, when they separate addresses that may be good versus addresses that may be bad.     That’s the best information that I have, is that it’s a direct mail term used by vendors in that circumstance.         [MORE

Goodling testified before the House Judiciary Committee [official website] Wednesday about the fired US Attorneys scandal.  She said that did not play a key role in the firings [prepared statement, PDF] but believed that previous Senate Judiciary Committee testimony [JURIST report] by Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty was "incomplete or inaccurate in a number of respects." Goodling, who was granted immunity for her testimony, admitted to considering applicants based on their politics, a violation of federal law. In addition, Goodling testified that at least one US Attorney was fired to open a spot for a protege of Karl Rove, but she believed Rove's role in the firings was minimal.

Goodling resigned [JURIST report] from her position as White House liaison at the DOJ in April. The Justice Department has been investigating [JURIST report] whether she considered the political affiliations of candidates for career prosecutor positions, which she admitted today. On Tuesday, she refused to comply  with a document subpoena without Justice Department approval.[MORE]

• Pictured above:  House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. listens as former Justice Department White House liaison Monica Goodling testified before the committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 23, 2007. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)