American Hero: Coates Negates a Year of Justice Department Spin on New Black Panther Case

{snip} Today might have been the worst day of all. Former Voting Section Chief Christopher Coates testified to the United States Civil Rights Commission that Obama political appointees dismissed the case because they are opposed to enforcing civil rights laws in a racially neutral fashion.

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In a dramatic hearing in Washington, D.C., Coates simply destroyed the year-long spin from the Justice Department regarding the dismissal. Coates is the former Voting Section chief, and served as lead attorney on the Black Panther case. He has practiced voting rights law longer than any other lawyer at the Justice Department. His testimony today was the worst possible nightmare for the Obama political officials responsible for the dismissal.

I testified before the Commission in July that Obama political appointee Julie Fernandes made it clear that the Voting Section at the Justice Department would not be bringing any more cases against traditional national racial minorities, like the members of the New Black Panthers. Under oath, Coates corroborated my testimony.

The public has been wondering for over a year why the case was dismissed. Coates testified why today: “[There is a] deep-seated opposition to the race-neutral enforcement of the Voting Rights Act against racial minorities and for the protection of whites who have been discriminated against.”

Coates verified that the DOJ is infested with racially motivated hostility towards equal enforcement of the law. Like me, Coates testified about the history of open and pervasive hostility inside the Voting Section to protecting the rights of white voters. This hostility first emerged in the case against Ike Brown in Noxubee County, Mississippi, going back as far as 2004:

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Coates confirmed that senior managers didn’t even want to open the investigation into discrimination against white voters in Noxubee County: “The Deputy Chief who was leading that election coverage asked me: ‘can you believe that we are going to Mississippi to protect white voters?'”

Coates described how his memoranda were doctored by former Voting Section Chief Joe Rich, {snip}

Coates also testified that he was reprimanded by Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King when he asked attorneys in job interviews {snip} if they were willing to enforce the law in a racially neutral fashion, regardless of the race of the wrongdoer, even if the wrongdoer was black. {snip}

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King wanted like-minded attorneys who were corruptly willing to turn a blind eye toward racial discrimination committed by national racial minorities. Soon thereafter, Coates was stripped of his power even to interview applicants. {snip}

He testified, as I did, that Justice Department attorneys and staff flatly refused to work on cases where the wrongdoer was black: “[An attorney told Coates in] no uncertain terms that he had not come to the Voting Section to sue African American defendants. {snip}”

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Coates also said that he was testifying because the Department has made misrepresentations to Congress, to the Civil Rights Commission, and to the public, sometimes under oath.

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Coates provided even more detail about a disgusting case of racially motivated harassment that occurred in the Voting Section: “A young African American who worked in the Voting Section as a paralegal volunteered to work on the Ike Brown case, and he later volunteered to work on the NBPP case. Because of his participation in the Ike Brown case, he and his mother, who was an employee in another Section of the Civil Rights Division, were harassed by an attorney in that other Section and by an administrative employee and a paralegal in the Voting Section.”

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There was much howling and complaining about the Bush administration hiring attorneys without experience working for left-wing civil rights groups. But now the public learns the truth: perpetrators of genuine racial harassment and gangster intimidation infest the Civil Rights Division, worked for civil rights groups, and were not hired by the Bush administration. {snip}

Coates also corroborated my testimony that Kristen Clarke of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund lobbied to have the lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party dismissed. {snip}

Finally, Coates testified as I did that the Department is unwilling to use Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to protect a white minority. Indeed, he confirmed, the Department refuses to even conduct an analysis whether a voting change will harm a white minority in places like Noxubee County, Mississippi.

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Overall, Coates painted a picture of racially motivated lawlessness inside the Department of Justice. I testified about the same circumstances, and there are many others who could provide sworn accounts of the same racially corrupt state of affairs.

America has only heard from two of us, but there are many more who know the truth.

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Also on Wednesday, Mike Roman had a blockbuster piece that reveals Philadelphia New Black Panther Jerry Jackson, one of the polling place stormtroopers, is a felon in possession of a firearm. The Holder Justice Department is failing to enforce federal felon in possession statutes against Jackson, which make it a crime for him to possess a firearm.

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Finally, the DOJ inspector general assured Republican Congressmen Frank Wolf and Lamar Smith that he was opening an investigation into whether the Voting Section enforces civil rights laws in a racially discriminatory fashion and harasses employees who bring cases like the New Black Panther lawsuit.

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[The transcript of Christopher Coates’s testimony can be downloaded as a PDF file here.]