AP Reporter Lara Jakes Jordan wrote about a letter that had "been sent" but not yet delivered to Attorney General Mike Mukasey. The reporter had a significant number of facts, including that the signers of the letter were Obama donors, that she did not disclose. Part of the story:
Six former Justice Department lawyers want Attorney General Michael Mukasey to make sure voter registration investigations don’t keep eligible minority voters from the polls on Election Day.
The six attorneys formerly worked in the department’s Civil Rights Division, which oversees ballot access issues as part of the Voting Rights Act.
The core of the letter concerned a policy at the DoJ that the Wall Street Journal has noticed is not being followed:
In a letter Friday to Mukasey, the attorneys noted that Justice Department policies generally discourage voter-related investigations until after elections to make sure the inquiries don’t interfere with legitimate voters at the polls.
There are several problems with this story however. First, as noted above, the letter hadn’t yet been delivered and no names were mentioned. Once I actually asked her for a copy of the letter, it turned out that 3 of the 6 signers of the letters were Obama donors. And she did not disclose that she herself is married to John Kerry’s campaign manager Jim Jordan. And that’s not the only problem.
The letter lists 6 attorneys: Stephen J. Pollack, James P. Turner, Brian K. Landsberg, Joseph D. Rich, Paul F. Hancock, and Sandra S. Coleman.
Of these, Pollack donated $2,300 to Barack Obama. Rich donated $500 (and possible more. 2 Joseph Rich’s donated with no compliance information). Hancock gave $250 (and another $1,000 to Chris Dodd). It is also possible that Turner gave $2,300 and is a Democratic Congressional staffer, but I cannot confirm that that is the same person.
This story is written by the spouse of the campaign manager for the previous Democratic nominee describing a letter by Democratic partisans containing unchallenged misleading statements that advances an argument by Barack Obama’s campaign.
One would think that the AP might have reported that differently.