ACORN’s Illegal Activities and Mafia-Style Tactics in Congress’s Spotlight
Originally published at Family Security Matters
Members of Congress heard testimony against the activist group ACORN on Thursday, exposing the group’s illegal activity and mafia-style tactics.
Pittsburgh lawyer Heather Heidelbaugh appeared before the a House Judiciary subcommittee alleging that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has violated campaign finance and tax laws in addition to their protest-for-hire and coerced donations. The source of the accusations was from the sworn testimony of ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief, who was a clerk for ACORN’s sister organization called Project Vote.
MonCrief, a Democrat and Obama supporter, testified last year that Barack Obama’s campaign gave Project Vote a “donor list” of people who had contributed the maximum amount allowed by federal law. According to Heidelbaugh’s testimony, the donors were to be targeted to donate to ACORN’s “Get Out the Vote” efforts and finance voter registration drives.
Heidelbaugh revealed in her testimony that there is virtually no separation between ACORN and Project Vote, as employees working for one group would perform work for the other.
Until October, MonCrief had been a confidential informant for New York Times reporter Stephanie Strong. Strong wrote several articles about ACORN based on the information MonCrief provided. When MonCrief informed Strong about the donor list in October, the reporter told MonCrief that the Times would not run the story because “it was a game changer.” The Times did not publish any further articles on ACORN throughout the remainder of the election.
MonCrief revealed that ACORN engaged in mafia-style “protection” rackets as part of their “Muscle for the Money” program. ACORN members would protest and intimidate people and businesses in order to get companies to negotiate, MonCrief said. “The companies would pay money to get the protesting to stop.” Targets included the Carlyle Group, David Rubenstein, Sherwin-Williams, H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt, Money Mart, and others.
MonCrief also revealed that ACORN violated their tax-exempt status, and failed to disclose how the group spent grant money. In addition, ACORN has accumulated about $3 million worth of liens in unpaid taxes.
Heidelbaugh told RadioAmerica.org in a radio interview that ACORN knowingly creates problems for election officials by submitting thousands and sometimes millions of voter registrations just before the deadline. “They hire people who are very poorly equipped to do the kind of work, or not trained at all,” she said.
“What they tell workers is to walk up to individuals and ask if they voted in the last election. They don’t ask them if they’re registered. That produces thousands if not millions of duplicate registrations. It burdens local election officials to the extent they have to extend their work hours, and they are unable to properly process registrations.”
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI.) said the allegations against ACORN were “a pretty serious matter” and brought up the possibility of a Congressional probe.
“I think that it would be something that would be worth our time,” Conyers said during the hearing. “We’ve never had one person representing ACORN before the committee. … I think in all fairness we ought to really examine it.”
During the presidential election however, Conyers defended ACORN by condemning an FBI investigation of ACORN’s alleged voter fraud. The legislator raised suspicions that the investigation was politically motivated and questioned the FBI’s professionalism.
Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, stated that there was not enough “credible evidence” to necessitate a hearing on ACORN.
Michael McDunnah, Project Vote’s spokesman, denied the allegations and said that MonCrief was not a credible witness. The group had previously terminated MonCrief for using the company credit card for personal expenses.
Project Vote is a tax exempt organization, which according to Internal Revenue Code prohibits the group from participating in partisan campaign activities. Also, under federal campaign finance laws, the non-for-profit ACORN is prohibited from making corporate expenditures supporting a particular candidate.