Second Update: New Hampshire Lawmakers Exonerated of Wrongdoing at Ballot Law Commission Hearing

REPRESENTATIVES CLAIM POLITICAL POSTURING FUELED INVESTIGATION

by Sharon Rondeau

(Mar. 12, 2012) — An investigation requested by New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney regarding alleged misconduct on the part of three state representatives has concluded that no wrongdoing occurred.

A hearing of the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission was held on November 18, 2011 at which Atty. Orly Taitz alleged that Barack Hussein Obama II is not eligible to serve as president and has committed crimes, and therefore should not have his name placed on the ballot for the 2012 election. The Commission concluded that Obama’s name would remain on the ballot because he had completed the Declaration of Candidacy and paid the requisite $1,000 fee, although they had previously removed another man born in Egypt from the presidential race in 2008.

Several members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives attended the hearing, after which Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Mavrogeorge and Assistant Secretary of State Karen Ladd reportedly went into a private room and called the Attorney General’s office to request assistance because of behavior on the part of two lawmakers which they perceived as a threat to their safety.

In a notarized statement signed on November 21, 2011, Mavrogeorge stated, “Never in my life have I witnessed such appalling behavior by anyone, let alone elected officials.  They showed a complete lack of repect [sic] for me as an Assistant Attorney General and as a human being.  Yesterday was the first time in my professional career that I felt that my safety was in danger.  I was so upset over what took place yesterday that I had a difficult time sleeping last night…”

One of the representatives who attended the hearing and witnessed its aftermath stated that “no threats were made.”

Attorney General Michael Delaney had asked that Col. Robert Quinn of the New Hampshire State Police, Speaker of the House William O’Brien, and the Chief of Protective Services investigate the allegations.

In a letter to Delaney expressing the conclusions of the probe, O’Brien stated, in part:

Based upon the independent reviews of the BLC meeting, there is no reason for the Legislature to take any steps, as the conduct did not violate any laws, ethics and did not constitute misuse of office.  Furthermore, since the security procedures were adequate and appropriate, the incident does not suggest any additional security measures that the Legislative Branch will need to implement prospectively.

Given that their names were mentioned in the letter you publicized, I have shared both reviews and this letter with the representatives involved.  Understandably, they were very upset that the allegations made by you and your staff were not founded when made and publicized.  They are relieved of course that these charges have been confirmed to be unfounded.  They and I however remain most distressed by the fact that you chose to publicize these unsubstantiated allegations prior to initiating any review of the events in question.  They justifiably feel they were convicted in the court of public opinion by your office based on charges that would not, and did not, survive the light of careful review.

…I am concerned more generally with the roughshod manner in which your office has dealt with this Legislature.  The Department of Justice would never make public details of an alleged crime before starting an investigation, but you abandoned such caution when it came to an apparent opportunity to denigrate three state representatives and, by extension, the New Hampshire House of Representatives…

The Post & Email contacted the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office today and was redirected to the voice mail of Assistant Attorney General Mavrogeorge.  We left a message asking for a response to the conclusions of the investigation as well as to the findings of the Cold Case Posse in Maricopa County, AZ, that they believe probable cause exists to render Obama’s long-form birth certificate and Selective Service registration card “computer generated forgeries.”  We left our telephone number and email address twice.

The Post & Email asked Rep. Larry Rappaport, who was in attendance that day but not accused of misconduct, his reaction to the conclusions of the investigation, and he said:

I think the report says what I’ve been saying all along:  No representatives threatened anyone.  We were in the hall because the hearing was over.  We talked among ourselves.  There were no threats of any kind made, and the worst word that was used in the course of the hearing was “traitor.”  I don’t know who said that.  I was there and I obviously heard it.  But there were absolutely no threats made.

On the other hand, there were some pretty clear violations.  I under stand that [Ballot Law Commission members] Mr. French and Ms. Van Oot both made political contributions, which is expressly prohibited by law.  In addition, everything was dismissed out of hand, and I think that the least that should have occurred would have been an investigation.

The chairman of the commission is a man named Bradford Cook, and he writes a biweekly column in the New Hampshire Business Review.  He wrote a column which pretty-much disparaged our efforts.  I called the editor, and he allowed me to issue a rebuttal in the following edition of about a half-page.

The Post & Email asked, “Were you surprised that Bradford Cook wrote such a column?” and Rappaport replied, “Yes, I was.  For one thing, the law which establishes the Ballot Law Commission says that it’s supposed to be  composed of two Democrats and two Republicans.   He didn’t have that; he didn’t have anywhere near enough Republicans.  He himself is a Republican.  He asked – I believe it was Mr. French, but I’m not sure – to appear as a Republican, and he did.  In New Hampshire, you’re allowed to change your party affiliation literally at will.  There is some question in my mind as to the ethics of being a lifelong Democrat, and for the purpose of one meeting lasting a few hours, declaring yourself a Republican.”

We asked, “Is that what happened?” and Rappaport answered, “Yes.”

The Post & Email also spoke with Rep. Harry Accornero, one of those named as “unruly and aggressive” by Attorney General Michael Delaney.  We asked, “What is your reaction that you and the others were exonerated of any wrongdoing?”  Accornero told us:

I was pleased.  I didn’t have any doubts that we would be.  This was a partisan attorney general who just took a lead in trying to discredit any kind of conservative Republicans for standing up for the Constitution.  He tried to discredit the three of us.  Unfortunately for him, he let it out in the papers before he even got a report.  He had us tried in the papers.  If I was accused of murder, he wouldn’t be saying anything.  This was just a partisan ploy by Democrats to discredit the conservatives for sticking up for the Constitution.  They didn’t want to answer our questions.

They know that Mr. Obama is a liar and thief.  He lied to the American people and he’s stealing America.  We have a non-functioning Congress that, as far as I’m concerned, is complicit with him because they have remained silent.  What it takes for the America people to actually get up and get together…the “birthers,” the Tea Party, all of them…instead of fighting these battles on separate fronts, they need to speak with one voice.  If there are any egos, put them aside, and stand up together for this country.  The only ones who are going to remove Obama are the American people.  thye have to come together, stand up, and say “Enough is enough.”  This man has stolen our Constitution and destroyed our country.  If you take everything that he promised before and right after his election, he has done nothing except saddle us with Obamacare.  Guantanamo is still there; Iran is still there.  I guess the only reason he’s keeping Guantanamo is so that he can keep American citizens there.

He’s anti-Christian and certainly anti-Semitic.  I would hope that people can see through his rhetoric.  He is not a supporter of Israel.  He’s a self-admitted Muslim; he has admitted that his father was a Kenyan, so he knows he’s not a natural born Citizen and so does Congress.  I think they’re complicit in this because they’re trying to have the Constitution changed so that a president doesn’t have to be a natural born Citizen.

They’re going to have a problem with Rick Santorum.  I have nothing against Rick Santorum, but I don’t think he’s a natural born Citizen.  I don’t believe his father was an American citizen at the time of his son’s birth.

This was laid out long before Obama got in.  It was calculated.  They knew that they were going to put him up there.  None of this just happened.  He’s keeping us dependent on foreign oil because they want to prop up Europe.  They want to bring down the American economy.

The Post & Email asked Accornero if he or Rappaport ever received a response from the complaint they sent about Obama’s ineligibility to the Attorney General following a January 3, 2012 press conference, and he said they had not.

Accornero then said, “We have to get down on our knees and beg forgiveness.  We could talk until we’re blue in the face, but we have to ask God to change things.  We need to call the people to task.  Writing letters is great, but we need to come together on the White House lawn or in Washington and have a day of prayer and ask the Lord to take this usurper out of the White House.”

Accornero stated that the New Hampshire Union Leader, which published the fact that an investigation had been ordered by the Attorney General, failed to publish the results of the investigation which cleared the lawmakers of misconduct.

Regarding the question of Obama’s eligibility, Accornero said, “It’s not about the birth certificate.  It’s a constitutional issue.”

The Post & Email contacted Rep. Carol DeLemus, who did not return our call.  However, she had written the following letter in response to the events of November 18, 2011:

Rep. DeLemus began the letter by stating:

Regarding the events of November 18th, I would like to apologize for my lack of decorum.

On page 2, she stated, in part:

I would still like answers to my questions.  In my legislative duties as an Election Law Committee member, I am very concerned about the integrity of our election system including our First in the Nation Primary.  I know all of you are as well.  My intent in attending the Ballot Law Commission hearing and in seeking answers was to further my own knowledge and to perhaps submit legislation to preserve this integrity if needed.  I still have two questions I would like to have answered:

1.  Do the U.S. Constitutional requirements for eligibility for the President of the United States turmp the NH RSAs regarding eligibility or do the NH RSAs trump the U.S. Constitution?

2.  Who is responsible for investigation of complaints?  Is it the Attorney General’s office, the Secretary of State’s office, or the Ballot Law Commission’s responsibility?

Update, March 13, 2012:  The Post & Email received the following written response to our request for a comment on the investigation:

From:  Rice, Ann (Ann.Rice@doj.nh.gov)
Sent: Tue 3/13/12 2:29 PM
To: editor@thepostemail.com
Response to your call to Attorney Matt Mavrogeorge

Good afternoon,
I am responding to the call you placed to Assistant Attorney General Matt Mavrogeorge, requesting a statement regarding the study that was completed by the NH State Police and the NH General Court Protective Services. In your message stated that you understood the study found no evidence of misconduct on the part of the legislators. That is not correct. The purpose of the investigation was to review the response by security personnel to the request for assistance and to determine what if any steps should be taken to improve that response. The investigators were not tasked with looking at the legislators’ behavior and evaluating whether it constituted misconduct. And, as you can see from the report, there were some recommendations made.

This is the statement that our office released in response to the study and Speaker O’Brien’s letter:

We want to thank the NH State Police and the NH General Court Protective Services for their investigative work and the professionalism that they demonstrated. We are pleased with the recommendations that were made to improve security at the General Court. We believe that state employees should feel safe in their work environment and should be treated with proper respect.

I will not offer any other statements regarding the letter or the study. You also asked for a statement regarding the Sheriff’s contention that Pres. Obama presented forged documents. I have no comment.

I hope this is helpful.

Ann M. Rice
Deputy Attorney General
33 Capitol Street
Concord, NH 03301
(603) 271-4900
fax: (603) 223-6213
ann.rice@doj.nh.gov

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Editor’s Note:  Enlarged text from the letter written by Attorney General Michael Delaney to Col. Robert Quinn of the New Hampshire State Police reads:

Update, March 17, 2012:  Following receipt of Deputy Attorney General Ann Rice’s response, The Post & Email replied with a copy of Attorney General Michael Delaney’s letter attached:

Thank you for your response to my request for a comment.  My understanding of the investigation came from AG Delaney’s letter, attached, which referenced the “conduct” of the representatives to Speaker O’Brien.  I received the 16-page full report from someone in the legislature, which also contained material referencing same.

Sharon Rondeau, Editor
The Post & Email
www.thepostemail.com

We received no further response from Ms. Rice.  Was the conduct of the legislators investigated or not?