NAACP: Jeff Sessions Is Racist For Prosecuting Voter Fraud

The organized left’s kitchen sink tactic seen throughout the week against Senator Jeff Sessions’ (R-AL) nomination for the next U.S. Attorney General included a bold effort to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee directly that the nominee’s record of prosecuting federal voter fraud defendants served as an example of voter intimidation.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund’s opposition campaign formally expanded this week to include the promotion of a letter from former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick (D), who previously served as a staff lawyer for the organization before advancing to be Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Clinton Administration.

The document, directed to Senate Judiciary Committee leadership, charged that Sessions’ judgment should be questioned after bringing a case against three black, Alabama voters for what Patrick describes was an effort to “help someone else to vote or advise them how to vote—even if and when they ask for such help.” The defendants named in the case (the Perry County Three) were Albert Turner, Spencer Hogue, Jr., and Evelyn Turner. Patrick reports that he served as counsel to Mr. Hogue. The former governor further charged that the case was an example of Sessions’ “extraordinary quasi-judicial activism” and noted that Sessions targeted his efforts on “black voters and only where white incumbents were losing political ground.” Finally, the letter argued that the former U.S. Attorney’s decision to give 20 local government witnesses armed protection when traveling to testify led some to believe there was a “campaign to intimidate” the group into “believing that voter assistance was illegal.”

The submission to the committee triggered a response from another former DOJ civil rights attorney on Thursday. J. Christian Adams, Public Interest Legal Foundation President, alerted senators to a number of “legal and factual inaccuracies” Patrick had offered that should not be relied on. The nonprofit called foul on Patrick’s attempt to reframe the case as a crackdown on lawful voter assistance and reminded committee members what the actual, alleged statutory violations were—mail fraud and voting more than once in a federal election. Adams argued that perhaps Patrick’s decision to redefine the case could be attributed to his potential view “that since the voters and the [ballot] harvesters were merely of the same race, no crime occurred because the harvesters knew who the voters should (or would) support.” The defendants initially requested the judge acquit them and then later offered to plead guilty to the election crimes—facts Adams notes were omitted in Patrick’s written statement and severely undercut the claim that Sessions should not be trusted, given his record of bringing the unnecessary case.

The NAACP narrative of the week was further challenged when a son of the Perry County Three, Albert Turner, Jr., endorsed Sessions for the post of attorney general, as reported by Breitbart News. Turner admitted there will be some policy differences between himself and an AG Sessions, but he and others in the “civil rights community can work” him if given the chance. He added that there is no longstanding ill will between them, stating that then-U.S. Attorney Sessions had “a job to do” when prosecuting his parents. “He is not a racist,” Turner added. The defendants were acquitted by the jury at the time. full story

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About Rhett October 1056 Articles
Rhett October is a man independent of the nanny state. He sees what is obvious but to many others is a successful deception. He has a crush on Tomi Lahren. Follow him on Twitter @RhettOctober "After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more." -Morpheus