Unlike Durham, Justice Swift For Hauke

It was just eight months ago that the Secretary of State's office moved to freeze the assets of Fishers hedge fund manager Keenan Hauke after a former employee blew the whistle on irregularities he found while sifting through the financial records for Hauke's business. The U.S. Attorney's Office has wasted no time in bringing formal criminal charges against Hauke, and Hauke has already agreed to plead guilty to defrauding 67 investors out of more than $7 million. According to the Indianapolis Star, the U.S. Attorney's Office plans to seek a prison sentence for Hauke of more than 17 years for Hauke. Asset recovery has moved along nicely as well.

It is not yet clear how much money investors may recover. However, state and federal investigators and a receiver appointed in Hamilton Superior Court has already seized about $1.8 million from bank accounts Hauke controlled and is going after more than 1,100 gold or silver coins, his home in Fishers and a condominium in tropical Barbados, plus personal items.

The investigation by state and federal agencies began nearly nine months on a whistleblower tip from an employee of Hauke’s Samex Capital headquartered in Fishers.

Contrast Hauke's treatment with that of indicted Ponzi scheme operator Tim Durham, who is still out on bail months away from facing a judge and jury, subject to home detention, more than two years after FBI agents first raided his offices years after a whistle blower had first began alerting federal and state authorities to the fact that Durham had been operating Fair Finance Company as a personal piggy bank. The U.S. Attorney's Office took nearly 18 months after raiding Durham's businesses before bringing formal charges against him. Ohio investors lost more than $200 million as a result of Durham's actions.

Federal authorities refused to freeze Durham's assets as Hauke's assets were immediately frozen. Actually, former acting U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison initially filed a complaint in federal district court to do just that but turned tail when Durham's politically-connected lawyer at Barnes & Thornburg, Larry Mackey, paid him a visit, after which he promptly withdrew the government's asset forfeiture complaint against Durham. As a consequence of Morrison's actions, defrauded investors were forced to hire private attorneys and petition to have his company placed in involuntary bankruptcy proceedings. A bankruptcy trustee appointed by a federal bankrupty court judge in Ohio has painstakingly tried to recover money for the defrauded investors with absolutely no help from federal law enforcement officials. To date, only about $3 million has been recovered, most of which has gone to pay professional fees for administering the bankruptcy estate.

It really does help when you have powerful political friends on your side like Durham has, who have more than a passing interest in making sure you don't do too much talking to the wrong people, and a wealthy, mysterious ex-father-in-law willing to help you out financially with your legal expenses who just happens to be a former high-ranking OSS officer. Yep, you can pretty much bet that the bulk of the money squandered by Durham from those disposable rural Amish folks in Ohio will never find its way back into their hands to be passed on to their heirs. We can only speculate who's holding their money and for whom if any of it still exists in the form of a recoverable asset. Suffice it to say that it's not being used for good purposes.

UPDATE: Speaking of missing money, is it not incredulous that former New Jersey Senator and Governor Jon Corzine has no idea what happened to $1.2 billion of MF Global investors' money? A lot of people don't realize this, but Corzine is an Illinois native who grew up on a farm near Taylorville, Illinois. Like Durham's victims at Fair Finance, many of MF Global's investors included farmers from the heartland. As the Wall Street Journal reported:

The havoc wreaked by MF Global's bankruptcy filing has been felt not just by Wall Street investors and traders, but also by wheat and corn growers, cattle ranchers and pig farmers. Dotting the farm belt, many who used the commodities market to protect against price swings are finding their money locked up and their hedges unwound due to the firm's downfall . . .

Capitol Hill has been flooded by calls and letters from farmers, farm-industry groups and others demanding help, as well as answers on why MF Global's demise upended a system that had quickly resolved most earlier brokerage failures. Legislators are pushing regulators and the firm's leaders to fix the problem and explain who is responsible . . .

We're getting more calls on [MF Global] than anything else," said Sen. Pat Roberts (R., Kan.), ranking minority member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, in an interview following a committee meeting last week. "It's now been one month since MF Global declared bankruptcy, but we still have folks with their ranches on fire."

Customers are still awaiting a transfer of another $2.1 billion out of a total $5.5 billion in funds owned by former customers of MF Global, which remains frozen in the wake of its Oct. 31 bankruptcy filing. The trustee charged with winding down the firm continues to search for what he estimates to be roughly $1.2 billion in unaccounted-for customer money, though some believe the figure to be significantly less.

"We didn't think this was a risk that we even had to think about," says Mark Greenwood, vice president at AgStar Financial Services, a Minnesota farm lender that estimates its clients have as much as $40 million locked up at MF Global.

As one of the largest U.S. commodities brokers, MF Global served hundreds and perhaps thousands of farmers who use the commodities markets, often alongside insurance, to protect themselves against price swings in their crops in a process called hedging.

With hedging, the farmers buy futures contracts to lock in a price, helping to ease the burden of market fluctuations. Being hedged also makes it easier for farmers to get loans from banks, industry participants say.

Corzine, a Democrat, was one of Obama's largest campaign fundraisers on Wall Street. There have been rumors for some time among the ag community that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on behalf of the Obama administration brokered a Faustian bargain with the Chinese during the wake of the current economic crisis concerning the large American debt held by the Chinese. According to the rumor, Clinton signed papers pledging significant amounts of rich farmland from the Midwest for Chinese cooperation. Don't be surprised if you start learning in the near future that the Chinese become new owners of a significant amount of America's richest farmland.

Neither Obama nor the Clintons can be trusted. Don't forget that the Clintons were caught red-handed raising tons of illegal campaign contributions from the Chinese and other Asians during Bill Clinton's re-election campaign. Both Clintons should have gone to prison for their crimes but they were instead rewarded. So why should we be surprised to learn that one of the firm's former top officials works at the State Department for Hillary Clinton, and Bill Clinton's consulting firm was on MF Global's payroll while American farmers' money was being stolen by these thieves? Barack Obama raised tens of millions of dollars illegally from foreigners during his 2008 presidential campaign and nothing was done about it because it was preordained that The One had to become president. Don't forget that Obama took time out during one of his visits to Indiana to record a quick line expressing his support for Tim Durham, II's campaign for class president at Indianapolis' prestigious Park Tudor High School. Has anyone ever wondered how Obama knew the Durhams? The YouTube video has since been removed from the Internet. Corzine, the Clintons and the Obamas are among the biggest criminals in America. They will sell out America in a heartbeat to line their own pockets. Until they are all behind bars, the Republic millions of patriots have fought and died for throughout our history is not safe.

Check out the questioning of Corzine by Sen. John Thune while testifying before the Senate Agriculture Committee. Check out particularly the questioning concerning foreign sovereignty investments.

Long-Time Democratic Volunteer Fingered In Democrats Petition-Forging Scheme

Dustin Blythe Photo From Facebook

A long-time Democratic volunteer and employee of St. Joseph County Voter Registration Office has been fingered by a forensic document analyst hired by the South Bend Tribune and Howey Politics as one of several persons responsible for forging signatures on the 2008 ballot petitions filed by the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The handwriting of Dustin Blythe, 37, has been linked to nine pages of the forged Obama petitions according to the South Bend Tribune. From the Tribune's Kevin Allen and Erin Blasco:

A Mishawaka man has been linked to some of the pages filled with fake signatures submitted as part of Barack Obama's petition to be on the 2008 Indiana primary ballot.

A forensic document analyst hired by The Tribune and Howey Politics Indiana identified Dustin Blythe, 37, by matching the handwriting on his voter registration card and two political petitions with that on nine suspicious pages from the Obama petition.

The analyst, Erich Speckin, concluded that all of the printing on the nine pages definitely is Blythe's, and the signatures likely are his, as well . . .

Blythe is a Democratic appointee who works in the St. Joseph County Voter Registration Office. According to county personnel records, however, he didn't work in voter registration in early 2008 when the signatures were being collected. His employment in the office began in August of that year. He is known to be a longtime Democratic party volunteer.

Blythe declined to comment for this article.

His attorney, Andre Gammage, said Blythe is innocent.

"He hasn't done anything and doesn't know anything about any signatures being manufactured or forged," Gammage said in a phone interview. "That's the reason he doesn't have anything to say. His comment is he didn't do anything."

Gammage also questioned the reliability of handwriting analysis as evidence. "They're not fingerprints," he said. "They're not that exact."

The forensic document analyst determined that Blythe, who describes himself as a Progressive Democrat on his Facebook page, did not act alone. Speckin believes the handwriting on the Obama petitions included those of three other persons. The Tribune says a source with knowledge of the petition-forging says there were seven people, including Blythe, involved in the effort to fake petitions. As to the forensic document analyst's qualifications, the Tribune writes of him:

Speckin said he has testified as a handwriting expert in more than 100 trials. He also has been retained by federal, state and local governments, law enforcement agencies and private individuals.

Blythe sporting an Edwards t-shirt with Obama volunteer Troy Warner

With these latest findings uncovered by the Tribune and Howey Politics, we now know that the petition-forging of Democratic petitions wasn't the act of a lone, rogue renegade; rather, it was a conspiracy involving multiple persons. The only person identified to date, Blythe, is not new to Democratic politics, and he was rewarded by the Democrats with a job in the voter registration office of St. Joseph Co. after the forging of the petitions occurred. Indiana Republican Party Chairman Eric Holcomb's call for a Justice Department investigation is well-supported by the evidence uncovered to date from this investigative reporting series. The chairman of Obama's 2008 presidential campaign in Indiana, attorney Kip Tew, is less enthusiastic about an investigation. In fact, he appears to have made a less than thinly-veiled threat in response to Holcomb's call for an investigation. Tew offered this comment dated October 10, 2011 on his Twitter account to Holcomb's request for an investigation: "Holcomb is barking up a tree he may regret."

Nobody Accepting Blame For Democrats' 2008 Petition-Forging Scandal

While Indiana Democrats are readily conceding that signatures were forged on the nominating petitions for the 2008 Indiana Democratic primary presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, nobody is taking responsibility for what occurred. The Chairwoman of the St. Joseph Co. Republicans Party has called on her Democratic counterpart, Butch Morgan, to resign without accusing him of forging the signatures. Morgan denies any wrongdoing but has lawyered up. Obama's 2008 chairman, Kip Tew, doesn't help Morgan out by telling the Tribune that Morgan's organization played a role in circulating the petitions under examination. From today's Tribune story by Kevin Allen:

The chairman of the St. Joseph County Democratic Party is rejecting a Republican call for him to step down in light of recent news that hundreds of local signatures were faked on petitions used to qualify the party's presidential candidates for the Indiana primary in 2008.

Butch Morgan, the county's Democratic chairman since 1995, said Friday through his attorney, Shaw Friedman, that there is no reason for him to resign.

"There is no evidence that Butch Morgan condoned, authorized or directed the forging or alteration of any of the questioned petition signatures," Friedman wrote in an e-mailed statement to The Tribune . . .

According to Kip Tew, former chair of the Obama campaign in Indiana, the St. Joseph County Democratic Party was among the groups and individuals that helped collect signatures to put Obama on the ballot in 2008. "Without a doubt," he said.

But that is not uncommon, Tew noted. Local party organizations often participate in petition drives on behalf of candidates for federal office.

Candidates for president, governor and U.S. senator in Indiana need to collect 500 signatures from registered voters in each of the state's nine congressional districts to qualify for statewide ballot.

Friedman said Morgan, who also is chairman of the state's 2nd Congressional District for the Indiana Democratic Party, doesn't remember -- nor should be expected to remember -- all of the volunteers who helped the party collect petition signatures during the 2008 campaigns.

Fleming clarified in an interview Friday that she does not believe Morgan was actively involved in the apparent fraud.

Speaking as someone who circulated nominating petitions for presidential candidates when I was actively involved in Republican politics in Illinois, both on behalf of the candidate and the delegate candidates who represented the candidate at the party's national nominating convention, I know that it is a process that is closely monitored by the candidates' national campaign. In Illinois, candidates not only had to gather a sufficient number of signatures to get their name on the statewide ballot, they also had to get a sufficient number of signatures for the slate of delegates who was pledged to support the candidate in each of the state's congressional districts. The campaigns had a team of lawyers who reviewed all of the petitions before they were filed with the state's Board of Elections. Any suspect petitions were discarded. It was not unusual for a lazy volunteer to simply use a voter registration list to fill out the petition sheets themselves rather than make the effort to circulate them to gather the signatures, but those petitions usually stuck out like a sore thumb.

What I don't understand is why these nominating petitions in Indiana aren't required to have the name of the person who circulated them affixed at the bottom of each page. As a petition circulator in Illinois, I had to sign a statement under penalties of perjury that I was the person who circulated the petition and had asked each person who signed the petition to attest they were a registered voter in the congressional district before they affixed their signature to the petition.

If Indiana had a similar requirement as Illinois, there would be no question who was responsible for submitting pages of forged signatures on behalf of the Obama and Clinton campaigns. Obama's campaign chairman, Kip Tew, is a lawyer who has long been active in Indiana Democratic politics, as has St. Joseph Co. Democratic Chairman Butch Morgan, who also serves as the chairman of the 2nd District. As critical as the signatures are to getting a candidate they back on the ballot, you can bet Morgan or Tew, if not both, know exactly who circulated those ballot petitions. It is incomprehensible that Tew would not have had a team of volunteer lawyers reviewing those petitions before they were filed on behalf of the Obama campaign. Similarly, former U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, and by extension, the Indiana Democratic Party, was running Hillary Clinton's primary effort in Indiana. The state party and Bayh camps know who circulated her petitions, as well as their Democratic-backed candidate for governor, Jim Schellinger.

Let's not forget how Obama first got his start in politics. When he ran for the state senate in Illinois against a popular long-time incumbent, he got a team of lawyers to scour her petitions, as well as those filed by all of his other opponents in the Democratic primary. His lawyers successfully challenged the validity of enough of his opponents' petition signatures to get all of them removed from the primary ballot, thereby allowing him to win the Democratic nomination by default. In his heavily-Democratic south side Chicago district, the primary election was the general election for all practical purposes. Obama's national campaign was being run by veterans like David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel, who you can bet had someone on the ground in Indiana scrutinizing the petition-gathering process, if not undertaking it themselves.

At the same time the camps of the two major Democratic candidates were filing pages of nominating petitions for their candidates with forged signatures, they were scouring the nominating petitions of Sen. John McCain, who was running unopposed, with a fine tooth comb. A paid PR flack for the Indiana Democratic Party, Thomas Cook, actually filed a formal complaint challenging the sufficiency of the McCain petitions, arguing that his campaign failed to file enough signatures in the 9th congressional district. His complaint was heard and eventually dismissed by the state's Recount Commission. If the Democrats had time to scrutinize McCain's nominating petitions, you can bet they were also closely examining their own. Perhaps persons at the very top of the Democratic Party knew their campaign petitions were vulnerable to challenge, and that's why they dispatched a paid operative to file a complaint against McCain's petitions as a preemptive strike assuming the Republicans would file a complaint challenging either or both candidates' petitions. There is also the added fact that Clinton's Indiana effort was being headed by the same Bayh-controlled state party apparatus that was backing the failed gubernatorial bid of Jim Schellinger. Whoever winds up getting the blame on the Clinton/Schellinger side of the investigation, you can bet sweet and innocent Evan will be protected from any blame.

Another Shock Report: Without Forged Signatures, Obama Would Not Have Been On Indiana's Primary Ballot

The South Bend Tribune has turned in yet another bombshell report on the petition-forging scandal that has enveloped Barack Obama's historical election victory in 2008 and, in particular, his unlikely win in the November, 2008 election in the state of Indiana. When the Tribune and Howey Politics first reported on their discovery of dozens, if not hundreds, of forged signatures on the primary ballot nominating petitions of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Indiana Democratic Chairman Dan Parker quickly dismissed the significance of the finding, claiming the forged signatures would not have made the difference over whether either candidate made it on to Indiana's 2008 Democratic primary ballot. The Tribune's investigation has reached the opposition conclusion. The headline in today's paper reads, "Fake signatures may mean Obama didn't actually qualify in Indiana."

Minus suspected fakes, then Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama likely fell short of the number of signatures needed to appear on the 2008 Indiana primary ballot, and it's possible his opponent, Hillary Clinton, did as well, according to information obtained by The Tribune as part of an investigation into suspected ballot petition fraud.

Trent Deckard, Democratic co-director of the state Election Division, in an e-mail Thursday told The Tribune Obama's 2008 petition for primary ballot placement in the state contained just 534 certified signatures in the 2nd Congressional District. Clinton's petition contained 704 certified signatures, he said.

Presidential candidates must collect at least 500 signatures in each of the state's nine congressional districts to appear on the statewide primary ballot in Indiana.

As reported Sunday, The Tribune, in conjunction with Howey Politics Indiana, has uncovered scores of fake signatures on both the Obama and Clinton petitions in the 2nd Congressional District and specifically St. Joseph County.

Dozens of people whose signatures appear on the Clinton petition have told The Tribune they did not sign the document, and Erich Speckin, a forensic document analyst hired by the paper and Howey Politics identified at least 19 suspected fake Obama petition pages.

Those Obama pages account for more than 100 signatures, meaning, minus the fakes, the former senator likely would not have qualified for ballot placement in the state.
Whether Clinton, a former senator and now secretary of state under Obama, would have qualified is harder to determine. The Tribune has identified 35 fake signatures on her petition in the district at this point.

That said, Speckin identified a number of suspected fake Clinton petition pages as well.

Clinton narrowly defeated Obama in the Indiana primary, and Obama won the state in his general election victory over John McCain . . .

Some may seek to minimize the impact of this revelation because Obama lost the Indiana primary as offering evidence it would have made no difference to his 2008 presidential prospects, but the reality is quite different. Indiana became a pivotal state for the Obama campaign. Unprecedented resources were spent here both during the primary and general election. Obama's campaign had to face off against the Bayh Democratic political machine, which was backing Hillary Clinton's campaign. If he had been kept off the ballot in 2008 because his campaign failed to file a sufficient number of signatures--as the Democrats attempted to keep John McCain off the ballot in 2008--it could have been a fatal blow to his campaign for the Democratic nomination. Even in losing, Obama's narrow loss to Clinton was portrayed in the media as a victory for his campaign because of how close he came to winning here and provided his statewide effort momentum going into the November general election against McCain
.
As the Tribune has previously reported, the investigation of the case is presently in the hands of St. Joseph Co. Prosecutor Michael Dvorak, who himself was the victim of a forged signature on at least one of the Clinton petitions. State GOP Chairman Eric Holcomb, who has called for a Justice Department investigation, believes as I do that Dvorak should recuse himself from investigating the case:

Holcomb, who has called on the Department of Justice to investigate the Clinton and Obama petitions, also responded to a report that the suspected fake Obama petition pages passed through the county voter registration office on days when the Republican member of the office was out.

"The evidence currently suggests this was clearly not a clerical error or simple oversight," Holcomb said. "Multiple crimes have been committed in a brazen violation of the public trust against the people of Indiana and our electoral process." . . .

Holcomb also suggested St. Joseph County Prosecutor Mike Dvorak, whose office is looking into the Obama and Clinton petitions, "recuse himself from any investigation being conducted by his office."

"Believing Prosecutor Dvorak is a victim of this crime, it's essential to maintain complete impartiality in investigating this important case," he said. "Therefore he should step aside and cooperate with those assigned to the investigation."

Dvorak's name and signature appear twice on the Clinton petition. He told The Tribune one of the signatures is his but did not respond to a question about the validity of a second signature sent to him a few days later, saying the matter was now under investigation.

The state Democratic Party declined to comment on the ballot question Thursday. It did, however, question the Election Division's signature totals for Obama and Clinton in the 2nd District.

Again, it remains mystifying how the media in the rest of the state and nation can continue to bury the damning discoveries made by the Tribune/Howey Political Report's investigative report into the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. How much longer can they ignore this story?

Former Gov. Joe Kernan Says His Name Was Forged On 2008 Obama Primary Petition

The petition-forging scandal enveloping the 2008 Indiana primary presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is deepening. Former Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan has come forward and told a South Bend Tribune reporter that a signature purporting to be his on one of the Obama petitions is a forgery."No, not at all," Kernan said when asked if the signature next to his name on the Obama petition looked like his own. "Nor does the printing look like mine." Kernan is among a dozen Democrats who have stepped forward to claim their signatures had been forged on the presidential primary ballot petitions following a bombshell joint investigative report published this past weekend by the South Bend Tribune and Howey Politics, which concluded that up to hundreds of signatures contained on the petitions were forged by one or two persons.

Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker has acknowledged that fraud took place, but he insists there were not enough signatures forged to have made a difference in either Obama or Clinton qualifying for the hotly-contested Indiana primary in May, 2008. Parker has also attempted to deflect blame for the forgery scandal by noting that a Republican elections official in St. Joseph County signed off on the petitions filed by the Obama and Clinton campaigns. The South Bend Tribune, however, has since learned that the Republican official was actually out of the office for several days when the petitions in question were filed. A stamped signature bearing her name was affixed to the petitions in question by a new employee of the elections staff who was in her first week of work on the job during her absence. The same cannot be said for the veteran Democratic employee of the office who signed off on the petitions. Erin Blasko explains:

Suspected fake petition pages to place Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the ballot during the 2008 Indiana primary passed through the county voter registration office on days when the Republican head of the office was absent, The Tribune has learned.

The pages in question bear the stamped signature of Republican Linda Silcott, indicating Silcott was not in the office at the time to sign the documents by hand. By comparison, most of the other, non-suspicious pages examined by The Tribune contain Silcott's written signature . . .

Typically, petition pages in St. Joseph County are signed by hand by both the Republican and Democratic members of the Board of Voter Registration.

In early 2008, however, Silcott missed a number of days of work because of the death of her husband. Consequently, her first deputy, Mary Carrol Ringler, often stamped Silcott's signature on the pages.

Each of the suspected fake petition pages bears Silcott's stamped signature, indicating the documents passed through the office on days when she was off.

Though Ringler was the only person permitted to use the stamp, she kept it in an unlocked desk drawer, Silcott said.

In addition, Ringler only began working in voter registration on Jan. 22, 2008. The suspicious petition pages are dated Jan. 28 and 29 and Feb. 4 and 5, within the first two weeks of her arrival.

Ringler told The Tribune Tuesday she could not recall how often she used the stamp during the 2008 primary. "Honestly, I don’t know," she said. "I know I didn’t do a lot petitions that year because I was brand new." She said she mainly uses it on purchase orders now.

Pam Brunette's written signature also appears on the backs of the suspicious petition pages. She is the Democratic member of the Board of Voter Registration.

Brunette did not respond Tuesday to a call seeking comment about the stamped pages. She said last week that voter registration workers “are not handwriting experts, so our job is basically making sure the papers are complete.”

Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White, who has been plagued the past year by Democratic efforts to prove he committed vote fraud during his election for his office by casting a vote at his ex-wife's home, has refused to comment publicly on the petition-forging scandal. White is considered the state's top elections officer, although the Indiana Elections Division administers the enforcement of Indiana's election laws. Yesterday, he filed a complaint in his individual capacity against U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh and his wife, Susan, accusing them of vote fraud and homestead exemption fraud. Indiana GOP Chairman Eric Holcomb has called for a Justice Department investigation. St. Joseph Co. Prosecutor Michael Dvorak, a Democrat, is reportedly probing the matter. He, however, has acknowledged that one of the two signatures of his that appeared on the Clinton petitions was forged. Democratic officials insisted last year that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate Charlie White's alleged vote fraud, which occurred and resulted in the special prosecutor obtaining a multi-count criminal indictment against him by a Hamilton Co. grand jury, even though the state Recount Commission, including the vote of the Democratic member, later unanimously cleared White of being an illegally registered voter as charged by the Democrats.

Hypocrisy really knows no bounds when it comes to the Democratic Party. To think these same people had one of their paid campaign staffers, Blue Indiana blogger Thomas Cook, file a complaint seeking to block Sen. John McCain's placement on the Indiana Republican primary ballot in 2008 because his campaign allegedly failed to file a sufficient number of signatures at the same time they were engaged in serial forgery to obtain sufficient signatures for their candidates. Cook, who has since become a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett, has used his Twitter account to poke fun at the investigative report uncovering the serial forgery and bemoaning the fact that he didn't get a mention for his role in challenging McCain's ballot petitions.

Is Dvorak Probe Of Forged Signature Scandal Proper?

Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker conceded in an interview with Howey Politics that election fraud did in fact take place in St. Joseph Co. during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary with respect to the petitions filed on behalf of the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. A joint investigation by the South Bend Tribune and Howey Politics published this weekend revealed that perhaps as many as hundreds of names of Democratic primary voters were forged on the petitions filed by the Obama and Clinton campaigns within the Second congressional district. Parker insists, however, that the number of forged signatures were not sufficient to have kept either candidate off the 2008 Indiana primary ballot. Quoting Parker, Howey Politics reports:

Indiana Democratic Chairman Dan Parker believes there was election fraud during the 2008 ballot petition process in St. Joseph County, but emphasized that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would have qualified for the Democratic presidential primary. "Clearly someone did something wrong and they need to be found," Parker said. He acknowledged that St. Joseph County Prosecutor Michael Dvorak has now initiated a probe into who ordered pages of forged signatures on Clinton and Obama petitions. But Parker emphasized that even without the forged petition pages, both Obama and Clinton would have qualified for the primary ballot. "Both had their signatures in well in advance of the deadline," Parker said. "Both had more than enough signatures. Both would have qualified. If you look at every petition, both would have had more than 500 signatures."

Parker indicates that St. Joseph Co. Prosecutor Michael Dvorak, a Democrat, has initiated a probe into the investigation; however, according to the investigative report's findings, Dvorak's name was among those Democratic voters in St. Joseph County that was apparently forged on at least one of the primary petitions filed by the Clinton campaign. The report indicated that Dvorak's signature appeared twice on Clinton's petitions. Given that his own signature was forged and his partisan participation in the 2008 presidential election process, it would only seem appropriate that Dvorak seek the appointment of a special prosecutor. Democrats last year insisted that the Hamilton Co. Prosecutor, a Republican, appoint a special prosecutor to investigate vote fraud allegations against then-Secretary of State candidate Charlie White. Former Hamilton Co. Prosecutor requested the appointment of a special prosecutor and two prosecutors were named, one Republican and one Democrat, to carry out the investigation that resulted in grand jury indictments being returned against White. I don't know how Dvorak could possibly expect the public to respect any investigation he conducts given his personal involvement in the matter.

Yesterday, Indiana State GOP Chairman Eric Holcomb called on the Justice Department to open an investigation. Holcomb wondered whether the signature forging was confined to St. Joseph Co. or extended statewide.

This weekend's disturbing news that perhaps hundreds of ballot access petition signatures submitted by the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are fraudulent raises real questions about the integrity of our process and whether or not those individuals should have been on the primary ballot in the first place. How deep does this problem go? Is it isolated to St. Joseph County or was it a broader, coordinated effort across the state? Why did the St. Joseph County Clerk not do her job in scrubbing the list and ensuring the validity of the signatures? Who forged the signatures and why?" Holcomb added, "This episode is a strong reminder of why Republicans statewide have fought to protect Indiana's Voter ID law and why an overwhelming majority of Hoosiers support the law. Later this week, I will submit a formal request to the Department of Justice for an inquiry into this matter. With candidates for office currently collecting signatures before the 2012 election cycle deadline, it is imperative we get to the bottom of this so it does not happen again."

Remarkably, this story has been largely ignored by the mainstream media in Indiana, let alone national news media, despite the story's implications. It has not been picked up by the wire services and has been largely ignored by the state's largest daily newspapers. The Indianapolis Star only mustered up a brief mention on its political online blog, Deep Fried Politics. No news story appeared in the paper today.

U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett's Spokesman Makes Light Of Forgery Allegations

Thomas Cook

UPDATED BELOW--State GOP Chairmans Calls For Justice Department Investigation
One would think that the newly-appointed spokesman for U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett would know that as an employee of the state's top federal prosecutor he no longer wears his partisan hat that he wore for years as a paid staffer for the Indiana Democratic Party and as the publisher of the Blue Indiana blog. Nonetheless, Thomas Cook reacted on his Twitter account to a South Bend Tribune/Howey Politics investigative story over the weekend that uncovered credible evidence that 2008 primary ballot petitions filed by the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for Indiana's Second congressional district were filled with forged signatures with snarky and derisive comments. Cook poked fun at the young reporter for Howey Politics who contributed to the report, Ryan Nees, and deadpanned the lack of credit attributed to him for his role in the McCain petition complaint:

I'm inclined to think the Ryan Nees brand of high school journalism was cuter when he was, you know, in high school . . .

Among numerous factual inaccuracies, how come I didn't get a name drop for the McCain ballot snafu?

You can bet if a Republican appointee in a U.S. Attorney's Office was caught making light of possible felonies committed by a Republican presidential campaign operative there would be immediate calls throughout the Omedia and Democratic blogs for his immediate firing. As we've come to understand, the rule of law only matters when it's somebody on the Right who is supposedly not following it. The Democrats don't even have to fear a simple press release from the Indiana Republican Party calling for an investigation, notwithstanding the Indiana Democratic Party's persistent antics over the past year to make Charlie White out to be a common felon unfit to hold public office and their tormenting of John McCain's presidential campaign in Indiana in 2008 when Cook filed a frivolous complaint to try to keep him off the ballot. It's funny how much ado the mainstream media in this state will make over such trivial matters and, yet, there is dead silence from the rest of the media on this story. The AP wire service picked up a story about Notre Dame switching from sheepskin diplomas but ignored this story. Great.

UPDATE: Perhaps my post shamed the Indiana Republican Party into responding to the South Bend Tribune/Howey Politics investigative report on the petition forging scandal involving the 2008 Obama and Clinton campaigns in Indiana. Late today, State GOP Chairman Eric Holcomb told the Star that he'll ask the Justice Department to open an investigation. I would prefer a state special prosecutor made of of one Republican and one Democrat--you know, the same treatment Charlie White got. The Star's Jon Murray reports on the Star blog, Deep Fried Politics:

Today brings a reaction from the Indiana Republican Party. Chairman Eric Holcomb says he’ll ask the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation. In a prepared statement, Holcomb says: “The integrity of every election is of the utmost importance. Hoosiers deserve the peace of mind knowing their votes were counted and their elections conducted in a free and fair way. This weekend’s disturbing news that perhaps hundreds of ballot access petition signatures submitted by the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are fraudulent raises real questions about the integrity of our process and whether or not those individuals should have been on the primary ballot in the first place.”

Holcomb adds: “How deep does this problem go? Is it isolated to St. Joseph County or was it a broader, coordinated effort across the state?”

He also connects the story to the Indiana GOP’s push for a voter ID law a few years ago, saying this allegation in St. Joseph County is a reminder of the need for voting protections.

Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker's response to the call for a criminal investigation is essentially that we didn't get caught in the act in 2008 so nothing should come of it regardless of how many crimes were broken, and if there is an investigation, John McCain's campaign should be investigated a second time after being investigated in 2008 as a result of a complaint filed by its PR fack, Thomas Cook.

The only candidate whose ballot access was challenged in 2008 was John McCain [the Republican candidate], who received a formal complaint about his filed petitions. The process was done in accordance with Indiana Election code. If the Republicans want to condemn this process, they’re condemning their own Republican county election board representative, who certified every single one of those signatures before they were sent to the Secretary of State. Both Democratic presidential campaigns had enough signatures to be on the primary ballot well in advance of the filing deadline WITH OR WITHOUT these signatures.

We fully support the current investigation of the activity that led to these alleged signatures, but we would urge Indiana Republicans to remember that this process is bi-partisan in each Indiana county, and there should be a full accounting of all signatures in 2008 filed by all candidates – Democratic and Republican.

Obama And Clinton Campaigns Forged Signatures To Make Indiana Ballot In 2008 Charges News Report

The South Bend Tribune is reporting that a joint investigation by its newspaper and Howey Politics has uncovered dozens, if not hundreds, of forged signatures on the ballot petitions filed by the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to have their names placed on the Indiana ballot during the highly-contested and critical 2008 Democratic primary race. The allegations, if proven, represent crimes that could still be prosecuted. Forgery is a Class D felony with a statute of limitations of five years. Incredibly, the signature of St. Joseph Co. Prosecutor Michael Dvorak appears twice on petitions filed by the campaign of Hillary Clinton. Dvorak confirmed one of the signatures was his, but he declined to comment after being asked to confirm the authenticity of the second signature that appeared on a separate petition. More than thirty people whose names appeared twice on Clinton's petitions confirmed their signatures had been forged. A forensic signature expert confirmed the same person has signed signatures on petitions filed by the Obama campaign:

Erich Speckin, a forensic document analyst, examined the petitions at the request of The Tribune and Howey Politics . . .

He said there is clear evidence, based on the consistency of the handwriting, that about 10 pages in the Obama petition were filled in by the same person, and another person apparently filled in nine pages. He said it's possible another two people filled in several more pages. Each page in the petition contains up to 10 signatures.

"It's obvious. It's just terribly obvious," Speckin said, pointing to one of the writer's idiosyncrasies repeated throughout the petition's pages.

The full extent of the fakery, which appears to be limited to the state's 2nd Congressional District and specifically St. Joseph County, is not yet known. The situation, however, calls into question whether either Clinton or Obama, both of whom were U.S. senators at the time, should have been on the Indiana primary ballot.

What is remarkable is the forging of names of well-known Democrats on the petitions. In addition to Dvorak, the forged signatures included a former sheriff and county auditor, a county council member, a prominent South Bend attorney and two South Bend police officers. St. Joseph Co. Democratic Chairman Butch Morgan's signatures appeared multiple times on the petitions. He has lawyered up and declined to talk to the reporters investigating the story.

The irony in all of this is that an Indiana Democratic Party staffer and former blogger for the Blue Indiana blog, Thomas Cook, filed a formal complaint in 2008 against the campaign of Sen. John McCain complaining that the petitions he filed in order to make the Republican primary ballot did not contain a sufficient number of signatures. Cook has since completed law school at Indiana University and has become the spokesman for U.S. Attorney Joseph Hogsett's office in Indianapolis. Republicans called Cook's complaint a "hatchet job". Cook's complaint was dismissed after the allegations he made were proven to be untrue. Cook scrubbed the contents of his highly-partisan and sometimes controversial blog, Blue Indiana, some time ago. Some have questioned Hogsett for hiring such a highly-partisan political hack to work in his office. David Capp is the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana where the alleged forgeries took place. [An earlier post mistakenly named Jon DeGuilio, a former U.S. Attorney who is now the U.S. District Court Judge in the Northern District, as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District].

There should be a prompt investigation launched by a state special prosecutor to look into the findings of this investigative report. You can bet the Obama Justice Department won't allow the U.S. Attorney's in Indiana to open up an investigation, particularly since the occupants of those offices are Democratic appointees, one of whom, Joe Hogsett, was actively involved in the 2008 Obama campaign. Kip Tew, a close friend of Hogsett, chaired the 2008 Obama campaign. He is a partner at Krieg DeVault and has written a book boasting of the success of the 2008 Obama campaign effort in Indiana.