First the Republican Governor of Florida broke with Republican talking points on this ACORN voter fraud business (here’s a primer on the ACORN kerfuffle). Now fired US Attorney David Iglesias, who got the boot in part because he refused to pursue trumped up voter fraud charges against groups like ACORN, agrees.
David Iglesias says he’s shocked by the news, leaked today to the Associated Press, that the FBI is pursuing a voter-fraud investigation into ACORN just weeks before the election.
“I’m astounded that this issue is being trotted out again,” Iglesias told TPMmuckraker. “Based on what I saw in 2004 and 2006, it’s a scare tactic.” In 2006, Iglesias was fired as U.S. attorney thanks partly to his reluctance to pursue voter-fraud cases as aggressively as DOJ wanted — one of several U.S. attorneys fired for inappropriate political reasons, according to a recently released report by DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General.
Iglesias, who has been the most outspoken of the fired U.S. attorneys, went on to say that the FBI’s investigation seemed designed to inappropriately create a “boogeyman” out of voter fraud.
Let’s call this what it is: a massive and well-coordinated attempt to (1) discredit groups that register low-income voters and (2) lay the groundwork for a post-election delegitimization of Obama’s victory. It’s pre-spin.
