Michael Yaki, who as a Democratic member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission led the opposition to the Commission's flawed investigation of the New Black Panther Party case, has released a statement indicating that the investigation by the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility demonstrates that “there was nothing sinister or evidence of any racial bias” in the Obama DOJ's handling of the case.

Yaki, who is currently awaiting reappointment also criticizes the USCCR's “so-called 'investigation'” as “a partisan-driven witch-hunt” and “a complete waste of money.”

In a letter today to Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, OPR's Robin Ashton wrote that her investigation into senior career officials' handling of the voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party found that they “did not commit professional misconduct or exercise poor judgment, but rather acted appropriately.” The investigation also found “no evidence” that their decisions were improperly affected by political considerations or by the race of the defendants.

Yaki's full statement reads:

The OPR findings affirm what I have stated over and over again: there was nothing sinister or evidence of any racial bias in the handling of the New Black Panther Party case by the Department of Justice under Eric Holder, and that the year and a half so-called "investigation' by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was a partisan-driven witch-hunt long on inflammatory rhetoric and desperately short on facts and a complete waste of taxpayer money.