According to Newsweek, Democracy Now! and other news sources, a former U.S. attorney was fired on orders from White House consultant Karl Rove for refusing to bring charges against a former ACORN employee for alleged voter fraud. The U.S. attorney in New Mexico, David Iglesias, now says there was insufficient evidence.
The radio program Democracy Now! has reported that one of the prosecutors dismissed by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he was pressured by Republican officials to target ACORN for voter fraud. At that time, ACORN was helping to register low-income and minority citizens in its campaigns to raise the minimum wage in four states.
Interviewed by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman on March 21, Adam Cohen, a lawyer and editorial writer for the New York Times, called the charges "bogus."
"...it appears some of them (the attorneys) may have been fired because they wouldn't go after Democrats or they wouldn't bring bogus voting fraud charges," Cohen said.
Democracy Now! reported that former chief of staff D. Kyle Sampson testified that during the run-up to the mid-term election, Karl Rove said Iglesias and two other attorneys weren’t aggressive in prosecuting organizations for alleged voter fraud.
See April 5 story in Harper's.
For more information about ACORN's activities, see www.ACORN.org