Obomination: More Problems with Labor Secretary Nominee Thomas Perez

Thomas Perez's nomination for Labor Secretary, as well as his activities as Assistant Attorney General for the civil division of the Department of Justice are extremely troubling.  First, let’s take some quotes from Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte from his statement Tuesday:

We are here today to examine a secret deal struck by a senior Justice Department official, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez.  This secret deal was brokered by Mr. Perez with the City of St. Paul in order to prevent a case from being decided by the Supreme Court.  In this exchange, Mr. Perez pressured officials at both the Justice Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to overrule career attorneys and abandon two pending False Claims Act cases against St. Paul.  This quid pro quo potentially cost American taxpayers over $200 million dollars.

The Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform Committees have been conducting an investigation into this matter for over six months and last month released a report, detailing this backroom deal.

The report found among other things:

·         That Assistant Attorney General Perez was personally and directly involved in negotiating the mechanics of the quid pro quo and he personally agreed to the quid pro quo on behalf of the United States during a closed-door meeting with the Mayor in St. Paul;

·         That despite the Department of Justice’s contention that the intervention recommendation in Newell was a “close call” and “marginal,” contemporaneous documents show the Department believed that Newell alleged a “particularly egregious example of false certifications” and therefore the United States sacrificed strong allegations of false claims worth as much as $200 million to the Treasury;

·         That Mr. Perez attempted to cover up the quid pro quo when he personally instructed career attorneys to omit a discussion of the Supreme Court case in the declination memos that outlined the reasons for the Department’s decision to decline intervention in Newell and Ellis;

·         That Mr. Perez attempted to cover up the quid pro quo when he insisted that the final deal with the City settling two cases worth potentially millions of dollars to the Treasury not be reduced to writing, instead insisting that your “word was your bond”; and that

·         That Mr. Perez made multiple statements to the Committees that contradicted testimony from other witnesses and documentary evidence.

The case against Perez is going strong and his defense ridiculous.  Among other things, it has come out that Perez had over 1200 personal emails on Department of Justice matters.  His excuse: “he wanted to work after hours.”  Former DOJ employee Hans Von Spakovsky blasts back at that:

As head of the Civil Rights Division, Perez most certainly had the same type of equipment and tools, completely obviating the need to use a personal e-mail account “to review or edit documents after normal working hours.” A far more plausible reason for using a personal e-mail account to conduct official business is to avoid having to produce e-mails in response to Freedom of Information Act requests and congressional subpoenas or having those e-mails become part of the official Justice Department files.

It is not just Bush appointees like Hans who are trboubled by Perez and DOJ's action.  liberal Democrat Elijah Cummings has signed a letter demanding Perez turn over these emails.

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee signed a letter Wednesday with panel Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) calling on Perez to turn over by Friday unredacted copies of 1200 work-related emails he sent on a personal e-mail account.

As said before, Perez's activities at Department of Justice deserve much further scrutiny.  Instead he is being promoted to Labor Secretary and that is an Obomination. 

Today is Law Day, Does Thomas Perez Know What that Means?

Today is Law Day for members of RNLA and other who believe in the rule of law.  Law Day is a special day aimed to help people appreciate their liberties and to affirm their loyalty to the United States, especially with regard to equality and justice. It also aims to cultivate respect for the law, which is vital to the democratic way of life.

For others it is May Day or International Workers Day.  The contrast could not be stronger.  Unfortunately the Obama Administration seems to be opposing Law Day with their nomination of Thomas Perez to be Labor Secretary.

Perez testified that Obama political appointees were not involved in the decision to drop the case against three of the four defendants from the New Black Panther Party.

But the Justice Department's inspector general said Perez's testimony was deficient.

"We found that Perez's testimony did not reflect the entire story regarding the involvement of political appointees," the report stated.

Regardless of the underlying decision, Perez’s lack of candor raises serious questions about his fitness to lead a major governing agency.  It is also an example of Perez’s disrespect for the rule of law of which there are unfortunately too many.  As Ed Whelan pointed out Perez :

signed on to the Obama administration’s brief in the Hosanna-Taborcase, a brief that was remarkably hostile to the religious-liberty right of churches and other religious organizations to select their own faith leaders. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected the administration’s “remarkable view that the Religion Clauses have nothing to say about a religious organization’s freedom to select its own ministers” and that religious organizations are instead limited to the right to freedom of association that labor unions and social clubs enjoy. It understatedly observed that the administration’s position “is hard to square with the text of the First Amendment itself, which gives special solicitude to the rights of religious organizations.”

 

Of course problematic outrageous decisions are far too common in the Civil Division of the Justice Department under Perez.  For example, Perez’s opposition to Voter ID went to irrational extremes.  Again, don’t believe Republicans or conservatives but listen to the courts and facts:

A federal court has ruled that South Carolina was the prevailing party in the unnecessary Voter ID litigation, and therefore the Justice Department is liable for paying the state’s costs. South Carolina spent $3,500,000 to obtain federal court approval of the state’s Voter ID law as non-discriminatory under the Voting Rights Act. The lawsuit was made necessary only because of the political and ideological radicalism of Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez and his deputy Matthew Colangelo.

PJ Media had this exclusive report detailing that career Voting Section employees, including Voting Section Chief Chris Herren, recommended that the Voter ID law be approved in the first place by DOJ after a careful written analysis inside the Voting Section.  Documents prepared by the career staff urged Perez and Colangelo to grant administrative approval to the South Carolina Voter ID law — but they refused. Their refusal was, in part, designed to energize a moribund political base heading into the 2012 election. The cost to the American taxpayers for their stunt will be significant.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office was quick to respond to the court’s ruling late yesterday:

“The state Attorney General’s Office blamed the U.S. Department of Justice for the high cost of the case. They accused the federal government of delaying the case by 120 days by filing numerous frivolous motions, including challenging the 12-point font size on a document the state filed.

“The Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., bears responsibility for the litigation costs,” said Mark Powell, Wilson’s spokesman. “The decision was so emphatic, even the Department of Justice and Interveners did not appeal it. South Carolina was forced to pay a hefty price because a handful of Washington insiders refused to do the right thing.”

The Courts have made the taxpayers pay for Perez’s excesses.  The Obama Administration has rewarded him by naming him Labor Secretary. Unfortunately it will likely remain the job of lawyers who respect the principals of Law Day to keep Perez in line.