DOJ probe says Panthers case handled appropriately

WASHINGTON — Justice Department investigators say they have found no evidence of politics when department lawyers dismissed three defendants from a voting rights lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party.

In a letter Tuesday to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Republican Lamar Smith, the department says that department attorneys acted appropriately and did not commit professional misconduct or exercise poor judgment in their supervisory duties.

The department investigated complaints that New Black Panther Party leaders intimidated white voters at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day in 2008.

Two lawyers who formerly worked in the department’s Voting Rights section have described what they called hostility from senior officials and career attorneys to pursuing accusations under the Voting Rights Act of minorities harassing white voters.