Bradley Schlozman
Encyclopedia
Bradley J. Schlozman is an American
attorney
who served as acting head of the Civil Rights Division
of the United States Department of Justice
under Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales
. Schlozman was also later appointed by Gonzales as the interim U.S. Attorney
for the Western District of Missouri
, replacing Todd Graves
, and he assumed that office on March 23, 2006. In April 2007, Schlozman left the U.S. Attorney position to work at the Executive Office for United States Attorneys.
Schlozman and his office came under review by Congressional and Senate investigators regarding the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys
and alleged inappropriate politicization of the Civil Rights Division. The Department of Justice Inspector General
and the Office of Professional Responsibility
alleged that Schlozman had violated the law and made false statements to Congress about his hiring decisions. While Schlozman testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that his personnel decisions were not based on party affiliation, the report cited emails and other communications in which Schlozman discussed hiring "right-thinking Americans" and ridding the Civil Rights Division of "pinkos", "commies", and attorneys perceived to be unacceptably liberal. Federal prosecutors, however, declined to file charges of criminal perjury
against Schlozman, drawing criticism from Senate Democrats
.
Schlozman resigned from the Department of Justice on August 17, 2007, and accepted a position with the Hinkle Law Firm in Wichita, Kansas
.
, Schlozman served a two-year federal judicial clerkship with Chief U.S. District Judge G. Thomas VanBebber of the District of Kansas. He then spent a year clerking for U.S. Circuit Judge Mary Beck Briscoe of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. In 1999, Schlozman moved to Washington, D.C.
, where he joined the Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Practice at Howrey, Simon, Arnold & White
, before moving on to the Department of Justice in November 2001.
Schlozman graduated from Shawnee Mission South High School in Overland Park, Kansas before receiving a Bachelor of Arts
degree in History and graduating magna cum laude with special distinction from The University of Pennsylvania.
He obtained his Juris Doctor
from The George Washington University Law School
, graduating with honors. While at law school, Schlozman served as a legal intern in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.
Schlozman began service in the George W. Bush Administration
as Counsel to then-Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson
. He then served in various roles including Deputy Assistant Attorney General directly supervising the Criminal, Voting, Employment, and Special Litigation Sections of the Civil Rights Division, five months as Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division, and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the United States Department of Justice. Following his tenure in the Civil Rights Division, Schlozman was appointed the interim U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
and Office of Professional Responsibility
subsequently conducted an investigation and issued a report on Jan. 13, 2009, concluding that Schlozman violated the Civil Service Reform Act by hiring attorneys on the basis of their political affiliation and later made false statements in his sworn testimony to Congress about his hiring decisions. Some conservative commentators who served with Schlozman, including Hans A. von Spakovsky
, have criticized the OIG/OPR report as inaccurate. Federal prosecutors later declined to prosecute Schlozman.
, "Georgia and other states with a history of voter discrimination" (mostly southern states) are required to show that law changes will not have a discriminatory impact on minority voters, and to get approval by the Department of Justice under 1965 Voting Rights Act According to rumors reported in the press, all of the staff of the Civil Rights division of DOJ, save one, recommended against the new law's approval, but Schlozman and other political appointees overruled the staff and approved it. The law was initially held unconstitutional as against the Georgia state constitution, but that ruling was reversed by a unanimous decision of the Georgia Supreme Court. In federal court, U.S. District Judge Harold L. Murphy issued an injunction against the law, holding that it was constitutionally suspect but declining to consider whether it offended the Voting Rights Act. Subsequent to the federal court decision, Schlozman wrote an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution defending the Department of Justice's decision to pre-clear the Voter ID law under the Voting Rights Act. Although the Justice Department's actions were heavily criticized by liberal groups, no court has ever held that the Georgia ID law runs afoul of the Voting Rights Act, the only statutory provision considered by the DOJ in issuing its approval of the law. In fact, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld the law against all constitutional challenges.
spearheaded a major redistricting plan for the state of Texas
. Justice Department
lawyers wrote a memo opposing the plan, concluding that the it violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act
. The memo was endorsed unanimously by lawyers and analysts from the Department's Voting section. Nevertheless, Schlozman and several other political appointees overruled the lawyers' objections and approved DeLay's plan. In League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry
, the Supreme Court
issued a complex 100-plus page concluding that all but one of the thirty-two district in the Texas redistricting plan satisfied the requirements of the Voting Rights Act.
, who Schlozman later succeeded after Graves' forced resignation, claims to have refused to sign off on the lawsuit, the Complaint filed in the case was signed by both Graves and an Assistant U.S. Attorney from his office, in addition to Schlozman and Assistant Attorney General Wan J. Kim. On April 13, 2007 a federal district judge dismissed the lawsuit, asserting that the Secretary of State couldn't police local registration rolls. The Justice Department appealed that ruling, however, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit later reversed the district court's decision. In March 2009, after a new political leadership had been installed at the Justice Department in the wake of the presidential election, the Justice Department asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit, essentially ending the case and dropping all charges.
, which concerns the replacement of a number of U.S. Attorneys by the George W. Bush administration in its second term.
.
In the summer of 2006, ACORN
"paid workers $8 an hour to sign up new voters in poor neighborhoods around the country. Later, ACORN's Kansas City chapter discovered that several workers filled out registration forms fraudulently instead of finding real people to sign up. ACORN fired the workers and alerted law enforcement."
Just five days before the 2006 election, Schlozman announced the indictments of four of the former ACORN workers, who all ultimately pleaded guilty to the voter registration charges. The election featured an extremely close Senate race between the incumbent Jim Talent
and eventual winner Claire McCaskill
. Former U.S. Attorneys Todd Graves
and David Iglesias
, expressed surprise at the indictments, claiming that they appeared to violate longstanding Department of Justice policy to avoid overtly politically-related prosecutions during an election. Joseph D. Rich, a 35-year veteran of the Department of Justice and chief of its voting section from 1999 to 2005, wrote a Los Angeles Times
op-ed criticizing the prosecutions as politically motivated.
Schlozman testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee
on June 5, 2007. Responding to concerns about a possible political motivation for pushing forward with prosecution immediately before the 2006 election, Schlozman stated that the department's public integrity officials had approved the prosecution and that he "did not think it was going to affect the election at all." However, he later amended his testimony, indicating that he had not been "directed" to indict for voter fraud, days before the November 2006 election in question, but that Schlozman himself made the decision to indict, after his First Assistant U.S. Attorney had consulted with the Washington DOJ Election Crimes Branch. According to Schlozman, Department of Justice policy—as explicitly underscored by the director of the Department's Elections Crimes Branch—was that the prosecution of ACORN employees for criminal voting offenses was not improper because the prosecutions pertained to "... voter registration fraud (which examined conduct during voter registration), not fraud during an ongoing or contested election."
, who had just left office, on charges of wire fraud in connection with a scheme for an appraiser to fraudulently inflate the price of her home that she was selling. Shields asked the court to dismiss the charges on the basis that they were politically motivated, but the court rejected her argument. The day after the indictment, Shields filed for an ultimately unsuccessful run for Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. She was subsequently acquitted in the criminal case although her co-defendants—the appraiser and the appraiser's associates—were convicted. Shields then sued the government to recover $202,000 in legal fees. However the court concluded that "[t]here is no evidence that the prosecutors in this matter acted with maliciousness or with an intent to harass, annoy, or embarrass [Shields] nor that the evidence was objectively deficient.".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
who served as acting head of the Civil Rights Division
United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is the institution within the federal government responsible for enforcing federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion, and national origin. The Division was established on December 9, 1957, by...
of the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
under Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...
. Schlozman was also later appointed by Gonzales as the interim U.S. Attorney
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
for the Western District of Missouri
United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri
The United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri is the federal judicial district encompassing 66 counties in the western half of the State of Missouri...
, replacing Todd Graves
Todd Graves
This article is about the U.S. Attorney. For the entrepreneur/restaurateur, see Todd Graves .Todd Graves was United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. He took his oath of office on September 17, 2001, initially as an interim United States attorney appointed by the U.S...
, and he assumed that office on March 23, 2006. In April 2007, Schlozman left the U.S. Attorney position to work at the Executive Office for United States Attorneys.
Schlozman and his office came under review by Congressional and Senate investigators regarding the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys
Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy
The dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy was initiated by the unprecedented midterm dismissal of seven United States Attorneys on December 7, 2006 by the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice. Congressional investigations focused on whether the Department of Justice and the White...
and alleged inappropriate politicization of the Civil Rights Division. The Department of Justice Inspector General
Inspector General
An Inspector General is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is Inspectors General.-Bangladesh:...
and the Office of Professional Responsibility
Office of Professional Responsibility
The Office of Professional Responsibility is part of the United States Department of Justice responsible for investigating attorneys employed by the DOJ who have been accused of misconduct or crimes in their professional functions...
alleged that Schlozman had violated the law and made false statements to Congress about his hiring decisions. While Schlozman testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that his personnel decisions were not based on party affiliation, the report cited emails and other communications in which Schlozman discussed hiring "right-thinking Americans" and ridding the Civil Rights Division of "pinkos", "commies", and attorneys perceived to be unacceptably liberal. Federal prosecutors, however, declined to file charges of criminal perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
against Schlozman, drawing criticism from Senate Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
.
Schlozman resigned from the Department of Justice on August 17, 2007, and accepted a position with the Hinkle Law Firm in Wichita, Kansas
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
.
Education, early career, and family
A native of Overland Park, KansasOverland Park, Kansas
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 149,080 people, 59,703 households, and 39,702 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,627.0 people per square mile . There were 62,586 housing units at an average density of 1,102.9 per square mile...
, Schlozman served a two-year federal judicial clerkship with Chief U.S. District Judge G. Thomas VanBebber of the District of Kansas. He then spent a year clerking for U.S. Circuit Judge Mary Beck Briscoe of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. In 1999, Schlozman moved to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, where he joined the Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Practice at Howrey, Simon, Arnold & White
Howrey LLP
Howrey LLP was a global law firm that practiced antitrust, global litigation and intellectual property law. At its peak Howrey had more than 500 attorneys in 16 locations worldwide.-History:...
, before moving on to the Department of Justice in November 2001.
Schlozman graduated from Shawnee Mission South High School in Overland Park, Kansas before receiving a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in History and graduating magna cum laude with special distinction from The University of Pennsylvania.
He obtained his Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from The George Washington University Law School
The George Washington University Law School
The George Washington University Law School, commonly referred to as GW Law, is the law school of The George Washington University. It was founded in 1825 and is the oldest law school in Washington, D.C. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a charter member of the...
, graduating with honors. While at law school, Schlozman served as a legal intern in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.
Schlozman began service in the George W. Bush Administration
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
as Counsel to then-Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson
Larry Thompson
Larry Dean Thompson is an American lawyer, most notable for his service as deputy Attorney General of the United States under United States President George W. Bush until August 2003...
. He then served in various roles including Deputy Assistant Attorney General directly supervising the Criminal, Voting, Employment, and Special Litigation Sections of the Civil Rights Division, five months as Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division, and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the United States Department of Justice. Following his tenure in the Civil Rights Division, Schlozman was appointed the interim U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
Personnel Controversy
In June 2007, Schlozman was questioned by Democrats on the U.S. Sentate Judiciary Committee regarding allegedly inappropriate politicized hiring policies during his tenure in the Civil Rights Division, charges which Schlozman denied. The Department of Justice's Inspector GeneralInspector General
An Inspector General is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is Inspectors General.-Bangladesh:...
and Office of Professional Responsibility
Office of Professional Responsibility
The Office of Professional Responsibility is part of the United States Department of Justice responsible for investigating attorneys employed by the DOJ who have been accused of misconduct or crimes in their professional functions...
subsequently conducted an investigation and issued a report on Jan. 13, 2009, concluding that Schlozman violated the Civil Service Reform Act by hiring attorneys on the basis of their political affiliation and later made false statements in his sworn testimony to Congress about his hiring decisions. Some conservative commentators who served with Schlozman, including Hans A. von Spakovsky
Hans A. von Spakovsky
Hans A. von Spakovsky is an American attorney and a former member of the Federal Election Commission . He was nominated to the FEC by President George W...
, have criticized the OIG/OPR report as inaccurate. Federal prosecutors later declined to prosecute Schlozman.
Georgia voter I.D. law
In 2005, Georgia passed a controversial voter I.D. law which required that all voters to show photo identification at the polls, and eliminated previously accepted forms of voter identification, including social security cards, birth certificates or utility bills. As required by the Voting Rights ActVoting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S....
, "Georgia and other states with a history of voter discrimination" (mostly southern states) are required to show that law changes will not have a discriminatory impact on minority voters, and to get approval by the Department of Justice under 1965 Voting Rights Act According to rumors reported in the press, all of the staff of the Civil Rights division of DOJ, save one, recommended against the new law's approval, but Schlozman and other political appointees overruled the staff and approved it. The law was initially held unconstitutional as against the Georgia state constitution, but that ruling was reversed by a unanimous decision of the Georgia Supreme Court. In federal court, U.S. District Judge Harold L. Murphy issued an injunction against the law, holding that it was constitutionally suspect but declining to consider whether it offended the Voting Rights Act. Subsequent to the federal court decision, Schlozman wrote an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution defending the Department of Justice's decision to pre-clear the Voter ID law under the Voting Rights Act. Although the Justice Department's actions were heavily criticized by liberal groups, no court has ever held that the Georgia ID law runs afoul of the Voting Rights Act, the only statutory provision considered by the DOJ in issuing its approval of the law. In fact, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld the law against all constitutional challenges.
Texas redistricting
In 2003, Tom DeLayTom DeLay
Thomas Dale "Tom" DeLay is a former member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1984 until 2006. He was Republican Party House Majority Leader from 2003 to 2005, when he resigned because of criminal money laundering charges in...
spearheaded a major redistricting plan for the state of Texas
2003 Texas redistricting
The 2003 Texas redistricting refers to a controversial mid-decade congressional redistricting plan appealed to the United States Supreme Court in League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry...
. Justice Department
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
lawyers wrote a memo opposing the plan, concluding that the it violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S....
. The memo was endorsed unanimously by lawyers and analysts from the Department's Voting section. Nevertheless, Schlozman and several other political appointees overruled the lawyers' objections and approved DeLay's plan. In League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry
League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry
League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, 548 U. S. 399 , is a Supreme Court of the United States case in which the Court ruled that only District 23 of the 2003 Texas redistricting violated the Voting Rights Act. The Court refused to throw out the entire plan, ruling that the plaintiffs...
, the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
issued a complex 100-plus page concluding that all but one of the thirty-two district in the Texas redistricting plan satisfied the requirements of the Voting Rights Act.
Lawsuit against Missouri
In 2005, while Schlozman was serving in the Civil Rights Division, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against Missouri accusing the state of failing to make a "reasonable effort" to eliminate ineligible people from voter rolls and improperly removing certain voters from the voter rolls prematurely. Although the then-US Attorney for Missouri, Todd GravesTodd Graves
This article is about the U.S. Attorney. For the entrepreneur/restaurateur, see Todd Graves .Todd Graves was United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. He took his oath of office on September 17, 2001, initially as an interim United States attorney appointed by the U.S...
, who Schlozman later succeeded after Graves' forced resignation, claims to have refused to sign off on the lawsuit, the Complaint filed in the case was signed by both Graves and an Assistant U.S. Attorney from his office, in addition to Schlozman and Assistant Attorney General Wan J. Kim. On April 13, 2007 a federal district judge dismissed the lawsuit, asserting that the Secretary of State couldn't police local registration rolls. The Justice Department appealed that ruling, however, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit later reversed the district court's decision. In March 2009, after a new political leadership had been installed at the Justice Department in the wake of the presidential election, the Justice Department asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit, essentially ending the case and dropping all charges.
Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy
The forced resignation of U.S. Attorney Todd Graves and subsequent appointment of Schlozman is part of the Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversyDismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy
The dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy was initiated by the unprecedented midterm dismissal of seven United States Attorneys on December 7, 2006 by the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice. Congressional investigations focused on whether the Department of Justice and the White...
, which concerns the replacement of a number of U.S. Attorneys by the George W. Bush administration in its second term.
ACORN voter registration prosecutions
In addition to the complaints regarding the lawsuit against the State of Missouri, described above, attention has focused on his lawsuit against several former employees of the activist group ACORNAssociation of Community Organizations for Reform Now
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now was a collection of community-based organizations in the United States that advocated for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues...
.
In the summer of 2006, ACORN
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now was a collection of community-based organizations in the United States that advocated for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues...
"paid workers $8 an hour to sign up new voters in poor neighborhoods around the country. Later, ACORN's Kansas City chapter discovered that several workers filled out registration forms fraudulently instead of finding real people to sign up. ACORN fired the workers and alerted law enforcement."
Just five days before the 2006 election, Schlozman announced the indictments of four of the former ACORN workers, who all ultimately pleaded guilty to the voter registration charges. The election featured an extremely close Senate race between the incumbent Jim Talent
Jim Talent
James Matthes "Jim" Talent is an American politician and former senator from Missouri. He is a Republican and resided in the St. Louis area while serving in elected office. He identifies with the conservative wing of the Republican party, being particularly outspoken on judicial appointments,...
and eventual winner Claire McCaskill
Claire McCaskill
Claire Conner McCaskill is the senior United States Senator from Missouri and a member of the Democratic Party. She defeated Republican incumbent Jim Talent in the 2006 U.S. Senate election, by a margin of 49.6% to 47.3%. She is the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri in her own...
. Former U.S. Attorneys Todd Graves
Todd Graves
This article is about the U.S. Attorney. For the entrepreneur/restaurateur, see Todd Graves .Todd Graves was United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. He took his oath of office on September 17, 2001, initially as an interim United States attorney appointed by the U.S...
and David Iglesias
David Iglesias (attorney)
David Claudio Iglesias is an American attorney from Albuquerque, New Mexico.He was appointed by President George W. Bush as the United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico in August 2001 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in October 2001. He served for 6 years. He was one of eight U.S...
, expressed surprise at the indictments, claiming that they appeared to violate longstanding Department of Justice policy to avoid overtly politically-related prosecutions during an election. Joseph D. Rich, a 35-year veteran of the Department of Justice and chief of its voting section from 1999 to 2005, wrote a Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
op-ed criticizing the prosecutions as politically motivated.
Schlozman testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary is a standing committee of the United States Senate, of the United States Congress. The Judiciary Committee, with 18 members, is charged with conducting hearings prior to the Senate votes on confirmation of federal judges nominated by the...
on June 5, 2007. Responding to concerns about a possible political motivation for pushing forward with prosecution immediately before the 2006 election, Schlozman stated that the department's public integrity officials had approved the prosecution and that he "did not think it was going to affect the election at all." However, he later amended his testimony, indicating that he had not been "directed" to indict for voter fraud, days before the November 2006 election in question, but that Schlozman himself made the decision to indict, after his First Assistant U.S. Attorney had consulted with the Washington DOJ Election Crimes Branch. According to Schlozman, Department of Justice policy—as explicitly underscored by the director of the Department's Elections Crimes Branch—was that the prosecution of ACORN employees for criminal voting offenses was not improper because the prosecutions pertained to "... voter registration fraud (which examined conduct during voter registration), not fraud during an ongoing or contested election."
Jackson County Executive Katheryn Shields
In January 2007, Schlozman's office indicted Democratic Jackson County Executive Katheryn ShieldsKatheryn Shields
Katheryn Shields is a Kansas City, Missouri Democratic Party politician who served as Jackson County, Missouri County Executive from 1995 to 2006.-Early life:...
, who had just left office, on charges of wire fraud in connection with a scheme for an appraiser to fraudulently inflate the price of her home that she was selling. Shields asked the court to dismiss the charges on the basis that they were politically motivated, but the court rejected her argument. The day after the indictment, Shields filed for an ultimately unsuccessful run for Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. She was subsequently acquitted in the criminal case although her co-defendants—the appraiser and the appraiser's associates—were convicted. Shields then sued the government to recover $202,000 in legal fees. However the court concluded that "[t]here is no evidence that the prosecutors in this matter acted with maliciousness or with an intent to harass, annoy, or embarrass [Shields] nor that the evidence was objectively deficient.".
News coverage
- Bradley Schlozman's supplemental answers to Congressional interrogatories, September 2007, courtesy of Talking Points Memo. Retrieved September 8, 2007.
- Justice Official Made Politically Biased Hires NPR, Retrieved January 13, 2009.
- Report Raps Bradley Schlozman, Former Justice Department Official, for Political Bias ABC News, Retrieved January 13, 2009.
- Report Cites Political and Racial Bias At Justice - Watchdogs Say Ex-Official Broke Civil Service Laws Washington Post, Retrieved January 13, 2009.
- Criticism of Ex-Official in Hiring at Justice Dept. New York Times, Retrieved January 13, 2009.
- Bush appointee saw Justice lawyers as 'commies,' 'crazy libs,' report says Los Angeles Times, Retrieved January 13, 2009.
- New report slams former head of Justice Department's civil rights division USA TODAY, Retrieved January 13, 2009.
- I.G. report says former civil rights chief broke the law CNN, Retrieved January 13, 2009.
- IG: Justice Official Hired Partisans, Lied CBS News, Retrieved January 13, 2009.