[Mb-civic] attack on Election Protection legal team & John Conyers' response

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Election 2004

Ohio's GOP Attorney-General launches revenge attack on 
Election Protection legal team 
by Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman January 19, 2005

COLUMBUS -- In a stunning legal attack, Ohio's Republican Attorney-General
has moved for censure against the four attorneys who sued George W. Bush
et. al. in an attempt to investigate the Buckeye State's bitterly
contested November 2 election.

Robert Fitrakis, Susan Truitt, Cliff Arnebeck and Peter Peckowsky were
named by Attorney-General James Petro in a filing with the Ohio Supreme
Court. Petro charges the November Moss v Bush and Moss v. Moyer filings by
the Election Protection legal team were "frivolous". Petro is demanding
official censure and fines.

"Instead of evidence, Contesters offered only theory, conjecture,
hypothesis and invective," the attorney general's January 18th memo in
support of the suit said. "A contest proceeding is not a toy for idle
hands. It is not to be sued to make a political point, or to be used as a
discovery tool, or be used to inconvenience or harass public officials, or
to be used as a publicity gimmick."

But Cliff Arnebeck says it is has been Petro and Ohio's partisan
Republican Secretary of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell, who have stonewalled
the election challenge legal proceedings. Both have refused to submit any
evidence to the court to refute the allegations in the election challenge
case - claiming George W. Bush did not win a majority in Ohio - and
Petro's office has also refused to allow any Ohio public election official
to be deposed.

"Their cage has been rattled and they popped their cork," Arnebeck said.
"The chairman of the Ohio Republican Party is going berserk because he
can't stand the fact we are not going away. We are still pursuing the
legal investigation and the legal interrogations. They are just besides
themselves because they cannot withstand cross examination."

Petro's filing is widely viewed as revenge for the heavy toll taken by
grassroots activists on the credibility of the Ohio GOP and Petro's
cohort, Secretary of State Blackwell. Spurred by the lawsuit, by extensive
coverage at http://freepress.org and other web sites, and by a nationwide
grassroots campaign that was escalated by Rev. Jesse Jackson and a series
of public hearings around Ohio and in Congress, some three dozen Senators
and Representatives mounted the first-ever challenge to a state's
Electoral College delegation.

Capping an unprecedented campaign by citizens concerned about a wide range
of disturbing and suspicious flaws in Ohio's voting process, Sen. Barbara
Boxer (D-CA) and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) exercised their rights
under an 1887 federal statue to force a two-hour debate in both houses of
Congress on whether the Ohio Electors designed for George W. Bush should
be seated. Both Ohio's Republican Senators, George Voinovich and Mike
DeWine, angrily denounced the action.

The campaign arose from widespread irregularities largely blamed on
Blackwell, who both administered the election and served as co-chair of
Ohio's Bush-Cheney campaign. In the past week Ohio media widely reported
that Blackwell has sent out a fundraising letter soliciting contributions
from corporate donors, which is illegal under Ohio law. Petro's office has
yet to indict Blackwell. Blackwell says the letter was "a mistake" and
pledged to send back any such contributions. He also claimed credit in the
letter for delivering Ohio's electoral votes to Bush, a boast that has
infuriated many Ohioans who believe the election was administered in a
partisan manner.

Petro's move to censure the four election protection attorneys could
result in stiff fines. The Ohio Supreme Court is dominated by Republicans.
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer was re-elected in a bitterly contested November
vote about which the election protection team raised challenges in its
Moss v. Moyer filing. Nonetheless, Moyer refused to recuse himself from
the Moss. v. Bush filing. Among other things, Moyer's court refused to
require Blackwell, Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Presidential Advisor
Karl Rove to testify under subpoena. Those refusals, and the January 6
Electoral College vote for Bush, prompted the team to withdraw both
filings.

Arnebeck has since filed another action attempting to stop Bush's
inauguration. That filing, in U.S. District Court in Ohio's Southern
district, was filed late last week and seeks to depose Blackwell for his
role in election "fraud" that awarded Bush the state's presidential vote
and a second term as president.

There has also been discussion of the possibility of filings based
primarily on civil rights violations against African-American and students
who were denied the right to vote on November 2 for a wide range of
reasons, most importantly a shortage of voting machines in critical
precincts.

Petro's brief repeatedly dismisses the now-dismissed 2004 presidential
election challenge as a frivolous suit, without any basis in fact.
However, what his brief does not state is how the Secretary of State's
office, assisted by Petro's office, effectively administered a gag order
on almost all presidential voting records and election officials after the
election.

Petro says the election challenge team could not prove election fraud, as
required by Ohio law. The challenge legal team, like other lawsuits,
sought to use the discovery process to boost their claims. Needless to
say, Petro's office used every avenue to deny them that right - and then
seeks to sanction them for improperly using the court discovery process.

Petro's action raises suspicions that revenge and an attempt to chill
further legal actions are the core motivations for this latest GOP assault
on the election protection process.

Still, these tactics will not end scrutiny of Ohio's 2004 presidential
vote. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have requested a federal
GAO report on election irregularities in the state. Those Democrats have
also produced a report detailing many Election Day problems that is now
part of the congressional record and will be the basis for federal
legislation later in the 109th Congress, many representatives and senators
have said.

--
Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman are co-authors, with Bob Fitrakis, of
OHIO'S STOLEN ELECTION: VOICES OF THE DISENFRANCHISED, 
2004, a book/film project upcoming from www.freepress.org. Contributions for 
that and for the  election protection legal defense effort can be sent through
http://freepress.org/store.php and to the Columbus Institute for
Contemporary Journalism, 1240 Bryden Road, Columbus, OH 43205.

------

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1111


Open Letter to Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro from 
Representative John Conyers, Jr. 
January 20, 2005

The Hon. Jim Petro
Attorney General
State of Ohio
State Office Tower
30 E. Broad St, 17th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215

Dear Attorney General Petro:

I write to express my concern regarding your recent request to sanction
those attorneys who brought a legal challenge to last year's presidential
election in Ohio. In particular, I am concerned that by seeking official
censure and fines, you are engaged in a selective and partisan misuse of
your legal authority. As eager as many disgruntled voters are to have a
court of law finally assess the merits of the challenge actions, I have
serious doubts about the validity of the sanctions case your office is
pursuing.

As an initial matter, one would be hard pressed to see how the legal
challenges brought under the Ohio election challenge statute were
"frivolous." First off, it is widely known that the Ohio presidential
election was literally riddled with irregularities and improprieties, many
of which are set forth in the 102 page report issued by the House
Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff. http://www.house.gov As a matter of
fact, the problems were so great that Congress was forced to debate the
first challenge to an entire state's slate of electors since the federal
Electoral Count law was enacted in 1877. In short, there is more than an
abundant record raising serious, substantive questions about the Ohio
presidential election.

It is also noteworthy that the Ohio Secretary of State intentionally
delayed certifying the vote, thereby insuring that the recount could not
be completed by the date the electoral college met on December 13. The
Ohio Secretary State also refused to respond to numerous questions
regarding the irregularities submitted to him by several members of the
House Judiciary Committee, has refused to respond to a single concern set
forth in the Judiciary Report, and also sought a protective order to avoid
any discovery related to the legal challenges. In short, Ohio election
officials have compounded public doubt concerning the election by refusing
to provide any sort of accountability and acting in almost every respect
as if they have "something to hide."

Given this context, and to help assure the public that you are not
selectively pursuing sanctions in these cases for partisan reasons, I
would respectfully request that you provide the House Judiciary Committee
and the public with an itemization of all sanctions cases brought and
considered by your office since January, 2003. In addition, I would ask
that you provide to us and make public an itemization of cases you have
considered and pursued under Ohio's campaign and election laws since
January 2003. Finally, I would like to receive a an estimate of the costs
you would expect to expend of Ohio taxpayer funds to pursue the sanction
case you are seeking against Mr. Fitrakis, Susan Truitt, Cliff Arnebeck,
and Peter Peckowsky.

If you believe the election challenge case should not have been brought, I
would suggest the more appropriate course of actions may be revisiting the
law with the Ohio legislature, rather than pursuing far-fetched sanction
cases which on their face would appear to be overtly partisan in nature.

I would appreciate it if you would respond to me though my Judiciary
Committee staff, Perry Apelbaum and Ted Kalo, 2142 Rayburn House Office
Building, Washington, D.C. 20515 (tel. 202-225-6504, fax 202-225-4423) by
no later than January 27. Thank you.

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Member
House Judiciary Committee

cc: Hon. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
Chairman, House Committee on the Judiciary

Supreme Court, State of Ohio

Ohio Bar Association 


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grassroots-CA-OH-FL/message/8151


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