Keith Olbermann thought he hit one out of the park when he accused Fox News of "fabricating facts" about the New Black Panther voter intimidation case that took place on Election Day 2008 in Philadelphia, PA. Funny, because Olbermann does a fantastic job of suppressing the facts. Olbermann said there was "one huge flaw in this Fox conspiracy", that the decision not to prosecute was not made by Obama, nor the Obama Administration, nor the Attorney general Mr. Holder, but by President George W. Bush. Right on one level, but wrong on others. Here's what Olbermann quotes as the 'smoking gun' in the 'groundbreaking' finding.
...After reviewing the matter the Civil Rights division determined the facts did not constitute a prosecutable violation of the criminal statutes. The department did, however, file a civil action lawsuit on January 7th, 2009 seeking injunctive and declaratory relief under 11B against four defendents. - Thomas Perez
There is one key word that's used over and over by Oblermann: criminal case. Yes,the criminal suit was dropped under President Bush, but a civil suit was then filed. The civil suit was not dropped under Bush and this is what the entire story is about. What did the "Fox conspiracy" write about the story in their very first article?
The Bush Justice Department brought the first case against three members of the group, accusing them in a civil complaint of violating the Voter Rights Act. The Obama administration initially pursued the case, winning a default judgment in federal court in April 2009 when the Black Panther members did not appear in court. But then the administration moved to dismiss the charges the following month after getting one of the New Black Panther members to agree to not carry a "deadly weapon" near a polling place until 2012.
Looks like the "conspiracy machine" wrote exactly what the case was, before it was eventually dropped. Keith also brings up Julie Fernendes, the person responsible for barking the orders not to "bring a lawsuit against a black." Well, this was also confirmed by Todd Gaziano, a Commissioner on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Here is an interview of Todd Gaziano, the man who tells all about the Black Panther case. Specifically Julie Fernendes' orders to never bring a case against a black or minority.
Let's go through this once again: the criminal case was dropped. It then became a civil lawsuit. The civil lawsuit was still alive and well when Obama and his administration came into power. Got it? Now, after that, the Department of Justice went through on the civil case-- and won. All of a sudden, when they were talking sentencing, what happened? The case was then dropped. That's right folks, the case was won and then eventually dropped--dare I say again? NOT by President Bush, but by Eric Holder under the Obama Administration. Plain and simple. Let's not forget that Hillary supporters during the Democrat Presidential Primary also claimed voter intimidation was occurring-- it was even recently made into a documentary titled " We Will Not Be Silenced". Nice try, Olbermann, but you are sounding quite Michael Moore-esque during your "smoking gun" discovery.