FEC Commissioner Faces Disbarment Complaint After Raw Story Report

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" The progressive non-profit network Velvet Revolution has filed a disciplinary complaint against Federal Election Commissioner Caroline Hunter with the DC Court of Appeals, asking that she be debarred for providing "misleading statements" under oath.


Last month, Raw Story's Brad Jacobson reported that when Hunter was serving as deputy counsel to the Republican National Committee in 2004, she submitted an affidavit in a court case claiming that "the RNC is not initiating, controlling, directing, or funding any programs of 'voter challenges' ... The RNC has not initiated any challenges to the absentee ballots in Ohio or in any other state." The statement was later questioned by the judge, who said her affidavit "belied the evidence" in the case.


The Velvet Revolution complaint, a copy of which was provided to Raw Story, charges that Hunter's affidavit may have been designed to be deliberately misleading and that "the case for Ms. Hunter's disbarment is clear and simple."


<http://www.velvetrevolution.us/images/Caroline_Hunter_DC_Bar_Complaint.pdf>


"In the final days of the 2004 presidential election," Jacobson's report explains, "the Democratic National Committee an injunction against the Republican National Committee in New Jersey federal court, alleging its involvement in using lists of returned mail to challenge 35,000 newly registered Ohio voters. This tactic, also known as voter caging, is historically employed to suppress votes from minority and low-income citizens who tend to vote Democratic."


The judge in the case, Dickinson R. Debevoise, ultimately rejected Hunter's sworn testimony and found the RNC in violation of an earlier consent decree forbidding it to use "ballot security measures" such as caging.


Legal experts Jacobson interviewed suggested that Hunter's testimony appeared to have been deliberately designed to mislead the court, which would amount to a breach of legal ethics. Velvet Revolution's filing levels the same charge, relying heavily on Jacobson's research and reporting.


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<http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0413/progressive-network-calls-disbarment-fec-commissioner/>

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