DOJ Report Shows Ginned Up Black Panther Controversy Was Much Ado About Nothing

The Justice Department released its report on the New Black Panther voter intimidation case, and — surprise, surprise — it was a lot of nothing, as Adam Serwer details.

This whole tale has been complete nonsense from the very beginning. The right has been obsessing over this case for years, insisting that Justice’s decision to dismiss the case against three of four defendents accused of voter intimidation at a Philadelphia polling station in 2008 proves that the Obama administration is riddled with anti-white racists.

It should come as a shock to no one that the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility has “found no evidence that the decision to dismiss the case against three of the four defendants was predicated on political considerations” or that there was “improper political interference or influence from within or outside the Department in connection with the decision in the case.”

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, led by conservatives,  spent $173,000 to find nothing. Lest there be criticism of these findings, the investigatory arm has a record of playing it straight.

In the past, the OPR has not hesitated to excoriate the Justice Department. In 2008, it found that the Justice Department’s political leadership had broken civil service laws by prioritizing partisan affiliation in its hiring practices. OPR also determined in 2009 that the political leadership of the Civil Rights Division under Bush had done the same.

Born of the desire to accuse a black president and black attorney general of anti-white bias, this one can now be chalked up with other false controversies such as the president’s religion and birthplace.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.