Hannity falsely claims charges dropped against New Black Panther carrying nightstick

Written by Adam Shah

Published

Sean Hannity falsely claimed charges were dropped against a member of the New Black Panther Party who was “carrying a nightstick” outside a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008. In fact, the Obama administration won an injunction against that person.

Hannity falsely claims DOJ “dropped the charges” against man carrying nightstick

From the January 25 edition of Fox News' Hannity:

HANNITY: The Obama administration is turning its back on transparency yet again. Now remember this video from Election Day 2008? It shows members of the New Black Panther Party standing outside a Philadelphia polling place and one of them was even carrying a nightstick. Now, thanks in part to Fox's coverage of the incident, the men in this video were formally accused of voter intimidation. Well, but this summer, the Justice Department dropped the charges against them with little explanation.

Well, now that same Justice Department has denied a request from The Washington Times to open the records related to the case. Now, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee would like Attorney General Eric Holder to testify in the matter, but Democrats are blocking that request. Now it certainly sounds like the Obama Justice Department has something to hide now, doesn't it?

DOJ won injunction against New Black Panther member carrying nightstick

DOJ civil rights chief: "[M]aximum penalty sought and obtained" against nightstick wielder. From December 3 testimony by Tom Perez, Department of Justice assistant attorney general for the civil rights division, before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties (via the Nexis search database):

PEREZ: The case was not dismissed. The case was reviewed by two attorneys, including Loretta, who have a combined total of 60 years of experience, and they made the determination that, based on the law of the Third Circuit, that the case against the person who wielded the stick, that we should indeed seek the maximum penalty, and that maximum penalty was sought and obtained, and the case against the other defendant should be dismissed, and the case against the national party should also be dismissed. So that was the determination that was made and so I needed to correct the record because the case was not indeed dismissed and those two career attorneys, with 60 years of experience, made that decision.

Wash. Times news report: DOJ “obtained an injunction against the defendant who held a nightstick.” In his report, Hannity cited The Washington Times, but the Times itself has reported that the Justice Department “obtained an injunction against the defendant who held a nightstick in front of a polling place during voting hours.”

Wash. Times editorial previously falsely suggested all charges dropped. In the first sentence of its January 19 editorial, The Washington Times asserted: “The Justice Department insists that only 'career employees' made a controversial decision last May to drop voter-intimidation charges against members of the New Black Panther Party.”