In case you haven't followed it, the BradBlog has an excellent rundown of events and documents that tend to show that Ann Coulter committed voter fraud and perjury in Florida last year. You can read about it here.
Joe Conason gave Coulter a short mention today in his New York Observer column.
I agree with Joe in principle that if the US Justice department is so concerned about voter fraud, it could find it in Palm Beach, Florida, where Ann Coulter knowingly voted in the wrong precinct. However, I just don't think that the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Alex Acosta, would do anything about it, since I think he is a "loyal Bushie" (if his membership in the Federalist Society, as indicated in Monica Goodling's chart is any indication). If you view pages 4-11 of this set of documents, you can see the whole chart, and you will notice that there is a "yes" for Mr. Acosta in the FedSoc (Federalist Society) column.
However, even if Mr. Acosta were inclined to investigate Ann Coulter, I don't think he could prosecute her under federal law, and I emailed Joe Conason and told him so. I will explain below. I also explain some of the other ways in which Ms. Coulter's actions could be scrutinized.
I posted about this on BradBlog, and got accused of being a troll (I think, I'm not sure). I then replied, citing some authority, and since it took some effort to do that, I decided that my work might make the basis of a good diary.
The federal statute on voter fraud reads as follows:
Whoever knowingly or willfully gives false information as to his name, address or period of residence in the voting district for the purpose of establishing his eligibility to register or vote, or conspires with another individual for the purpose of encouraging his false registration to vote or illegal voting, or pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or for voting shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both: Provided, however, That this provision shall be applicable only to general, special, or primary elections held solely or in part for the purpose of selecting or electing any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, presidential elector, Member of the United States Senate, Member of the United States House of Representatives, Delegate from the District of Columbia, Guam, or the Virgin Islands, or Resident Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
42 U.S.C. 1973i(c).
You will note from one of the earliest stories in Brad's report that Ms. Coulter voted in a special election for the City Council. That's simply not an election covered by the above statute.
I believe Congress could have created jurisdiction over the election which is the subject of Ms. Coulter's alleged fraud. For example, if she voted on new machines for which Congress provided the money under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, jurisdiction could be based on Congress' spending power. U.S. Const., Art. I, sec 8, cl. 1. Or, Congress could have declared that it was regulating the interstate commerce in voting machines. U.S. Const., Art. I sec 8 cl. 3. The commerce power argument would be much more difficult to make in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995).
In any case, Congress specifically decided not to do that, and limited the reach of the federal voter fraud criminal statute.
There is nothing, however, that would prevent Ms. Coulter from being prosecuted under Florida law, except, as Brad has pointed out, the apparent unwillingness of any state or local prosecutorial authority to convene a grand jury or file a criminal information. The U.S. Attorney cannot prosecute her solely for violating a state statute.
I do believe that Ms. Coulter could be investigated by the New York Bar, for unethical conduct even if she has not been convicted. If she were found to have engaged in misconduct that reflects negatively on her fitness to practice law (22 N.Y. ADC sec. 1200.3), she could face some sort of suspension of her licence to practice law, but I doubt she would be disbarred in the absence of a conviction. In any case, the NY Bar is unlikely to do so unless a NY Bar member or citizen of New York filed a complaint.
I'm not suggesting that anyone do anything, but if you are a resident of Palm Beach County, Florida, you might want to contact the local prosecutor and ask why there has been no action on this incident (Brad surmises he may be smarting from the less than spectacular result he obtained prosecuting Rush Limbaugh for drug offenses). Here's his website.
If you are a member of the New York Bar, or simply a concerned citizen of the State of New York, you may want to get in touch with the office that regulates lawyer conduct in the New York City area.
I'd be interested to hear what you find out.
UPDATE - Brad commented that he thinks Ann Coulter could be prosecuted under the federal statute. He bases his position on the New York Times from 4/12/07 that discussed several cases of voter fraud for simply registering with the intent to vote in a federal election. I posted a reply here. You can see that I haven't been able to read the article yet, but I will go into the law library tomorrow and read the print version (I really am too cheap to get Times Select when my office is across the street from a library - why buy the cow yadda yadda yadda).
For now, I will stand by my point that this case is likely distinguishable based on the particular facts.
FURTHER UPDATE - BradBlog comments that an F.B.I. agent intervened on Ms. Coulter's behalf to stop the investigation. If this is so, and I am correct that there is no federal crime, it makes such intervention all the more inappropriate. The F.B.I. agent would have no business getting involved in a Florida state investigation if there is no federal crime involved.