Cross Burnings, Medicaid Scams and “Voter Fraud” Fraud
A great deal more information is now emerging about the struggles between former Kansas City U.S. Attorney Tom Graves and main Justice, all of which leaves one puzzling about which side of the law enforcement divide is occupied by main Justice. It seems Graves had constant difficulties with the Civil Rights Division–Graves wanted to prosecute a cross-burning case (exactly the sort of thing that the Civil Rights Division was involved in, back in the old days when its concern was protecting, instead of suppressing, civil rights), but main Justice objected. Kansas City’s KMBC TV reports:
Graves told Mahoney that things got particularly bad after a cross-burning case. From the Graves interview and draft provided to Mahoney: “Graves wrote this memo after an angry phone call with the “acting head of the civil rights division, Alex Acosta.” Graves said he hung up on Acosta and 2 days later wrote him this memo:
“I am unwilling to negotiate (within Dept. of Justice) to eviscerate and weaken this agreement”. Graves said that friends in the department warned him at the time that kind of action could hurt his career. Graves said he also had trouble over Robert Courtney, a local pharmacist who was convicted diluting Cancer drugs. Graves said he wanted to sieze $10 million dollars from Courtney and give it to the victims. And when Washington balked, he said “I got angry.” Telling them, “I am not the US Attorney for Washington, I am the US Attorney for western Missouri.”
So main Justice intervened to stop civil rights enforcement actions, to support a medicare fraudster and to pressure Graves to bring a fraudulent voter fraud action – which he ultimately refused to sign. And after all this friction, Graves was dismissed and Acosta’s deputy, Bradley Schlozman, was sent to Kansas City in his place. This provides much more grist for the hearing with Mr. Schlozman, scheduled for May 15. Or at least it was . . .
Sorry, on Vacation
Former Kansas City U.S. Attorney Bradley Schlozman writes to advise the Senate Judiciary Committee that he can’t appear at the hearing scheduled for May 15 because he will be on vacation. The obstruction continues.
