Brad Schlozman's Underexposed Political Hackery

With yesterday's masterfully synthesized compendium of Missouri-related Department of Justice malfeasance on Brad Blog and Talking Points Memo's assertion that there's some big U.S. Attorney Purge news on the way regarding the short-time U.S. Attorney for Western District of Missouri, it is a perfect time to reflect on some woefully unremarked upon pieces of Bradley J. Schlozman's record.

Of course, Schlozman earned his way to top billing as a Purge-gate player via his work on a couple of politically motivated hits that were run through him while he served in various Justice-related offices. Most noted during recent scrutiny by old and new media have been:

• ACORN Prosecutions for Fraudulent Voter Registrations- During his tenure as U.S. Attorney for Missouri's Western District, Schlozman broke with long-standing precedent among Federal law enforcement by bringing indictments against 5 voter-registration workers paid by community group ACORN just days before a high-profile and tightly contested election. Schlozman, as the first U.S. Attorney appointed under a then-little-noted provision added to the Patriot Act that allowed interim U.S. Attorney's to be picked by the President without Senate confirmation, aggressively and unorthodoxly pushed the voter registration fraud prosecutions forward in a manner intended to provide "verification" for the GOP "voter fraud" claims that had flourished in Missouri --even in the face of direct evidence to the contrary-- since November 2000.
• NVRA Lawsuit Against Robin Carnahan and the State of Missouri- In late October of 2005, while serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, Schlozman authorized suit by the United States against Democratic Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, alleging that she had not purged enough voters from county rolls to fulfill her duty under the National Voting Rights Act. With the suit, Schlozman aimed not only to absolve current GOP Governor Matt Blunt of any voting issues for which he may have been responsible in the past (Blunt preceded Carnahan as Secretary of State) by shifting the defensive onus to the new Democratic Secretary of State, but also to put obstacles before Carahan --who many viewed as an up-and-coming elected official who could pose a huge threat to Blunt in the future. The suit additionally gave Missouri GOPers a platform from which they could continue to make unfounded claims about unregistered voters and the "stealing" of elections. Just weeks ago, a federal judge ruled in Carnahan's favor on the suit, going so far as to suggest that the Civil Rights Division had made up its theories of the suit as it went along.
• Signing off on Voter ID Legislation- Scholzman famously overruled career Civil Rights Division attorneys who thought that the Department should oppose Voter Identification legislation in Georgia because of its probable negative effects on minority voters. Similar legislation was passed and later found unconstituional in Missouri.
  

These cases, because they were high profile and because they center on Republican "voter fraud" themes that animated the entire politicization of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney Purge, are the ones on which many accounts of Brad Schlozman's political motivations have focused. Understandably so. However, Schlozman also used his positions --both at Main Justice in the Civil Rights Division and later as U.S. Attorney-- to pursue actions intended to advantage Republicans in Missouri, even outside the "voter fraud" context.

For one, in late September 2006 --just weeks before an election that the GOP had often tried to make a referendum on whhich party could be trusted to "keep America safe"-- U.S. Attorney Brad Schlozman's office apparently sought and received search warrants which the FBI would use to raid the home of Columbia, Missouri businessman and Muslim philanthropist Shakir Hamoodi. For Republican candidates like Jim Talent who had staked themselves to a President and a Congress whose chief anti-terror tactic was the demonization of middle easterners, Arab-Americans and Muslims, a brazen raid of the Mid-Missouri home of a Islamic activist with a foreign-sounding name was just the sort of thing that they hoped might renew voters' faith in their support for an already disastrous war. Schlozman made it happen.

To date, Shakir Hamoodi has not been indicted or charged with any crime stemming from the September 2006 raids.

As with the NVRA suit against Carnahan, Schlozman also used his position within the Civil Rights Division to pursue cases he thought would accrue to the benefit of Missouri Republicans.

In June 2005, while Schlozman was serving as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General there, the Civil Rights Division wrote the state of Missouri with news that it intended an investigation into potential violations of civil rights of disabled persons living at Bellefontaine Habilitation Center in St. Louis County. That habilitation center had been the pivot point in a political battle involving Governor Matt Blunt --who stated his intent to close the center in his first State of the State address-- and the Parents' Association of the residents of the facility.

By June 2005 it was clear that Blunt's plan to close Bellefontaine Habilitation Center in July of that year was nothing more than a pipe dream, as concerned mothers and family members rallied around keeping the center open despite the governor's claims that abuse and neglect were problems there. Enter the DOJ's Civil Rights division --where Schlozman was top brass-- which told the state it would investigate, and began brief "inspections" of the facility in November 2005, ultimately issuing a report that largely kowtowed to the Blunt position on the matter. Once again, a "law enforcement" body for which Schlozman toiled was doing grunt work for prominent Missouri Republicans.

Examining the history, one almost gets the sense that Schlozman spent his time at the Civil Rights division auditioning for the role of unabashedly political law enforcement official --using whatever opportunties he had to make cases, thin though they may have been, that showed he was ruthlessly partisan enough to deserve appointment as U.S. Attorney where he could do some real damage.

Perhaps by pushing cases that helped GOP standard bearers while piling inconvenience on their Democratic counterparts, Schlozman demonstrated his willingness to dive headfirst into ridiculous snipehunts that served only to buck-up tired GOP themes. A willingness that the Bush administration needed in a U.S. Attorney in a state that'd have a closely contested U.S. Senate election in 2006.

These are small portions of the truth about Brad Schlozman. There is more of it, undoubtedly. We all --those of us who think the Department of Justice should be something more than a bunch of wannabe Don Segrettis-- should be glad that Josh Marshall and others are soon to deliver the rest.