GOP Lawmaker Wants Explanation Why Justice Dismissed Black Panther Voter Intimidation Charges

Republican Rep. Frank Wolf is accusing Attorney General Holder of ignoring his requests for an explanation why the Justice Department dismissed charges of voter intimidation filed against two members of the New Black Panther Party.

The case relates to allegations that members of the New Black Panthers interfered with voters trying to enter a Philadelphia polling station on Election Day 2008.

The Hill newspaper first reported Monday that Wolf, R-Va., also asked Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers to hold a hearing, saying one Black Panther member at the polling place was allegedly carrying a local Democratic committee card.

In a letter dated June 8 to Holder, Wolf wrote that he could not understand how the department could drop the case.

"I worry that the department's commitment to protecting the 'fundamental right to vote' is wavering under your leadership. I fail to understand how you could dismiss a legitimate case against a party that deployed armed men to a polling station -- one of whom brandished a weapon to voters -- who harassed and intimidated voters, and could then decide such actions do not constitute a violation" of the Voting Rights Act, Wolf wrote.

"None of the defendants filed an answer to the lawsuit, which means that legally they admitted all of the allegations in the complaint," Wolf continued. "Yet your department dismissed the suit it had already won by default against three of the defendants."

A Justice Department spokeswoman told The Hill that the facts don't back charges that NBPP National Chairman Milik Zulu Shabazz and party member Jerry Jackson violated the law or attempted to intimidate, threaten or coerce voters.

The spokeswoman added that the decision to end the investigation was made by career officials, not political appointees.

One of the four men there that day, Minister King Samir Shabazz, did face a charge of brandishing a "deadly weapon," a nightstick, outside the polling station, The Hill reported. His punishment -- being prohibited from brandishing a weapon within 100 feet of a Philadelphia polling station until after the 2012 election.

Click here to read more from The Hill newspaper.