Republicans on the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee have released a new report leveling fresh allegations and evidence of corruption against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.
Entitled "Follow the Money: ACORN, SEIU and their Political Allies," the report presents information gleaned from committee investigations into hundreds of bank accounts, shell organizations incorporated under myriad sections of the internal revenue code, even an ACORN-directed accounting firm, Citizens Consulting Inc., charged with obscuring the trail and use of funding streams pouring into ACORN from taxpayers and charitable contributions alike.
The report includes a blistering executive summary of four crucial findings:
- 1. ACORN and SEIU entered into illegal agreements that constitute a criminal conspiracy.
Investigators found that ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis, Executive Director Steven Kest, and Political Operations Director Zach Polett have actual or apparent authority over ACORN's activities and then identified a pattern of alleged criminal acts.
- 2. ACORN and SEIU are substantially intertwined using a "Muscle for the Money" component
According to the new report, a combination of electioneering, intimidation and threats of litigation have been refined into an art form to force private corporations and government officials alike into deals and political compromises at the expense of taxpayers.
Documents produced new revelations including:
* receipt by ACORN of $5,609,338.00 dollars from the Service Employees International Union, the same union that used violence to intimidate townhall activists protesting Obamacare last summer;
* Florida state senator Anthony Hill was simultaneously employed by SEIU and ACORN; Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), former Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill.), and Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) have received the support of SEIU's ACORN affiliates.
- 3. ACORN, as a corporation, is responsible for submitting thousands of fraudulent U.S. voter registrations
Examinations of documentation from state election offices reveals late filing dumps of volumes of fraudulent voter registration cards the report found were intended to overwhelm the system in an effort compromise free and fair elections promised in the Constitution of the United States.
- 4. ACORN contributed to the risky sub-prime lending that led to the U.S. housing bubble financial collapse.
| No doubt Attorney General Holder will turn it over to his best prosecuting team on Monday morning. | |