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Probe: No wrongdoing at Justice during Texas redistricting fightDeLay's office had sought help in finding AWOL legislators
From Kevin Bohn
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department did nothing wrong after it was peppered with requests this past May to help track down Texas state Democrats who had fled the state during a partisan redistricting battle, according to the results of an internal investigation released Tuesday. The investigation found that only one of nine requests to the department employees was granted, and, in that case, the FBI agent acted properly, according to the Justice Department's inspector general. "We found that, in response to these requests, department employees, with one exception, recognized that this was a state matter and did not provide any assistance to the search for the Texas legislators," Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine said in his report. His office was asked to investigate who requested officials to intervene and what they said after about 50 Democratic members of the Texas House left the state May 11 to prevent a quorum -- thereby not allowing a vote on a GOP redistricting plan. After the legislators fled to Ardmore, Oklahoma, the chief clerk of the Texas House of Representatives issued warrants directing that the missing legislators be brought back. One of the inquiries to the Justice Department regarding the issue came from the office of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican who had worked on the redistricting plan in his home state. A DeLay aide called an assistant attorney general, according to the report, asking if the department had any legal authority to intervene in the matter. The assistant attorney general sent an e-mail to his bosses, including Deputy Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher. "This is not something the department should be getting involved with," Fisher replied, according to the report. The assistant attorney general called DeLay's office later the same day to say there was nothing the department could do and that it had not conducted an in-depth analysis of the topic, the report said. In the one instance where the Justice Department acted on the matter, an FBI agent based in Corpus Christi, Texas, received a request from an officer with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), which was searching for the legislators. The FBI agent and the DPS officer, according to the Justice Department report, had worked together in the past and the FBI agent knew one of the legislators being sought. The agent told the inspector general's staff he got involved because the DPS' use of terms such as "warrant" led him to believe there was a criminal angle to the matter. The report says the FBI agent spoke to his legislator friend, who said he and the other legislators were in Oklahoma. The FBI agent relayed that information to the DPS officer. The same FBI agent also called the same legislator to determine if another legislator was also in Oklahoma, which he was. The agent reported that to the DPS. The inspector general said the agent acted in his official capacity and did not violate statutes or FBI policies by placing the calls. "After careful review and consultation with the FBI, we did not find the agent violated any FBI policy," Glenn said in his report. Other inquiries about getting involved went to FBI officials in Dallas and Ardmore, Oklahoma, Glenn said in his report. The redistricting battle continues to rage in Texas. Eleven Democrats in the Texas State Senate have been holed up in New Mexico for about three weeks to prevent action on the GOP redistricting plan.
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