Conyers Releases Report on New Black Panther Party Case

From [HERE] The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Representative John Conyers of Michigan, on Thursday released a 78-page Justice Department report about a much-disputed voter-intimidation case involving the New Black Panther Party, a radical fringe group.

The report by the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, available for reading here, offers new details about how the case was developed and internal deliberations at each stage, including sharp disagreement over the incident’s significance from the beginning.

But the report also concludes that both factions acted in good faith. The internal ethics watchdog had already told Congress in a letter last week that its investigation had cleared all department lawyers of any wrongdoing in relation to the case.

The New Black Panther case stemmed from an Election Day incident on Nov. 4, 2008, when two party members, dressed in black clothing, were filmed standing outside a polling station in a majority-black precinct in Philadelphia on Election Day in November 2008. One was holding a night stick, and was eventually directed to leave by the police. The party later posted a statement on its website disavowing the incident.

Days before the Bush administration left office, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division filed a voter intimidation lawsuit against both men, the party and its national leader. But several months later, a career official serving as acting supervisor of the division concluded that the case was too sweeping and downsized it to target only the man with the nightstick.