PLUS: The GOP 'Voter Fraud' Legislation-Influencing Front Group Lied on Their Tax Disclosure Forms, Claiming They DID NOT Attempt to 'Influence Legislation'...
By Brad Friedman on 6/13/2007, 2:01pm PT  

Following up on Thor Hearne's apparent attempt to delete the taint of his American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) con-man past by scrubbing his Wikipedia entry as we discussed yesterday in some detail.

And since Thor wants to keep playing, we'll point out that, yes, it appears his GOP "voter fraud" front group lied on their tax forms. Thor's a lawyer. A rather "important" one in fact, so one would think he would know better than to risk further tarnishing his powerful MO lawfirm Lathrop & Gage's reputation. Details below.

But first...today, Loyola law professor Rick Hasen, who originally discovered the attempt to expunge reality from Thor's Wiki, finds that the battle continues...

Two days ago, in this post, I noted that someone had deleted information on Thor Hearne's Wikipedia page noting Hearne's affiliation with and controversy over the American Center for Voting Rights. I updated the post to note that someone from Hearne's law firm, Lathrop and Gage, made a change to that page. Since my post appeared, Wikipedia readers restored information about on ACVR on Hearne's Wikipedia page. But now, that information has been deleted again by someone from ip address 65.204.234.241, which also belongs to Lathrop and Gage. Indeed, this search shows that someone at that law firm also has been editing the page on the American Center for Voting rights too.My Slate article on Hearne and ACVR, which apparently has not been deleted by anyone at Hearne's law firm, is here.

To those BRAD BLOG readers who have restored info to Thor's page and to the ACVR page, we'd ask you to keep up the good work. I suspect they will tire before you do!

While you're at it, up the ante! Apparently there wasn't nearly enough detail on Thor's scam on those pages, so feel free to draw freely from our special coverage page right here: https://BradBlog.com/ACVR.

And just to add a bit of fresh material, given Thor's desperate attempt to hide his past (while successfully telegraphing that he clearly feels he has much to hide), we'd add this little chestnut of a lie from ACVR's 2005 990 [PDF] form...

If you can't read that (click to see larger size) it asks:

During the year, has the organization attempted to influence national, state, or local legislation, including any attempt to influence public opinion on a legislative matter or referendum? If "Yes," enter the total expenses paid or incurred in connection with the lobbying activities.

The liars at the ACVR, of course, checked the "No" box.

We don't have time to detail the mountains of evidence that, of course, the "non-partisan" tax-except 501(c)3 organization --- co-founded by Rove's friend and Bush/Cheney national general counsel Hearne and RNC Communication Directory Jim Dyke --- was meant for little else than to do exactly that. Through public on-the-record official testimony, propaganda, back-channel influence, helping to write Voter ID legislation in a number of states, etc.

While we're no tax attorney, we're fairly certain that knowingly lying on a tax form for a public organization falls under the category of "illegal." Perhaps someone at Thor's lawfirm Lathrop & Gage, like, um, Thor for instance, would be better able to answer that question for sure.

Unlike Osama bin Laden, Thor can run, but he can't hide. But he can keep trying. Every time he does, we'll just up the ante. Wanna keep playing, Thor? We don't have your $1 million dollar funding or friends in high places. All we have is the truth on our side, and an army of folks who find your un-American, democracy-undermining efforts to be appalling at the deepest level. That'll keep us going for now...

UPDATE 2:13pm PT: "mrs panstreppon" joins the anti-ACVR, pro-truth blog army over at TPMCafe today with a nice roundup of the latest details. Thor's latest strategy to disappear himself seems to be working very well for him. Let's hope he keeps it up!

UPDATE 3:04pm PT: "mrs panstreppon" apparently took a look previously at ACVR's 990 herself. Just saw it now, via a new Thor piece over at Fired Up! Missouri from Howard Beale. More on that one soon, as well.

For more information on the "non-partisan" tax-exempt ACVR "Voter Fraud" scam and the snakeoil salesmen who invented it, Bush/Cheney '04 National General Counsel Mark F. "Thor" Hearne and RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke, please see BRAD BLOG's full Special Coverage of the "American Center for Voting Rights" at https://BradBlog.com/ACVR.
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