The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has concluded an investigation finding that politics played no role in the handling of the New Black Panther Party case, which sparked a racially charged political fight.
After reviewing thousands of pages of internal e-mails and notes and conducting 44 interviews with department staff members, the OPR reported that “department attorneys did not commit professional misconduct or exercise poor judgment” and that the voter-intimidation case against the Panthers was dismissed on “a good faith assessment of the law” and “not influenced by the race of the defendants.”
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Ed Morrissey lays the snark on thick:
Whew! I’m glad that the DoJ got to the bottom of the allegations against the DoJ. This must be how transparency works, right? After all, the “good-faith assessment of the law” must have been of such good faith that it overrode a judgment that had already been entered by the court against the defendants, who didn’t even bother to show up to argue their case in court. And a “good-faith assessment” of this video certainly doesn’t lead to the conclusion that a reasonable person would have concluded that someone wearing paramilitary gear and brandishing a nightstick while challenging people approaching a polling place was committing voter intimidation … right?
Forget the sworn testimony of career DOJ attorney Christopher Coates. Ignore J. Christian Adams'
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Nothing to see here, folks. The report says so.
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