Former Justice Department Voting Section lawyer J. Christian Adams gave a speech at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Charleston right before last Saturday’s South Carolina Republican presidential nominating contest.

He touted his role in the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case ^[1] and hawked his book, titled “Injustice,” alleging racism in the Eric Holder Justice Department.

“I saw first hand the radicals – and I use that term very deliberately – the radicals who came to power along with Eric Holder and who will be enforcing federal election law in this coming presidential election,” Adams said, adding that “Obama campaign posters” hang on the walls of some of his former colleagues in the Civil Rights Division. “Now you’d think that they are good impartial people and will administer the law fairly, unless of course you’ve been paying attention.”

Adams was slated to appear between Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, but the former House speaker – who went on to win the South Carolina primary decisively — didn’t make the event. Former Voting Section chief Christopher Coates was also in the audience, according to Adams.

His speech echoed comments ^[2] by Gingrich that Holder is attempting to steal the 2012 election by manipulating election laws. He blasted Holder for opposing voter identification requirements in states like South Carolina. Republicans say voter ID is necessary to prevent fraud, but Democrats say such laws are intended to keep the poor, elderly and minorities from voting – groups that traditionally vote Democratic.

Adams was hired in 2005 by the George W. Bush administration into what was supposed to be a nonpartisan, apolitical career civil service job. Instead, as readers of these pages know, Adams pursued an ideological agenda ^[3] that culminated in his quitting the department in 2010 in order to give testimony about the New Black Panthers case before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, then dominated by conservatives.

In 2009, days before Obama was inaugurated, the Bush DOJ filed a civil voter intimidation lawsuit against two Black Panthers who stood outside a majority-black polling place in Philadelphia during the 2008 presidential election. The members of the obscure hate group were caught on video by a blogger working for the local Republican party. They wore paramilitary clothing. One of them held a night stick.

^[4]

Click on the above image for a link to C-SPAN's coverage of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference on Jan. 20. J. Christian Adams speaks at the 11:08 mark.

“One of the things that makes this country great … is that we don’t normally have armed racist thugs standing outside polling places shouting racial slurs at voters,” Adams told the pre-election gathering of Republicans.

When the Obama DOJ dismissed the civil lawsuit in 2009, concluding it had little evidence to back it up and didn’t merit use of scarce resources, conservatives turned the lawsuit into a major issue alleging reverse racism ^[5] in the Holder Justice Department.

(Adams neglected to mention that his own investigation of the matter for the DOJ failed to turn up any voters who complained of being intimidated ^[6] at the polls by the Black Panthers that day. Or that the only people who complained were white Republican poll watchers who weren’t even registered to vote there.)

He said he and Coates were forced to resign from the DOJ to testify about the Black Panthers. (Department rules prevent career civil service lawyers from testifying publicly about matters that are supposed to be handled by the political appointees).

Coates later left the department and has resurfaced ^[7]as a lawyer for the state of South Carolina in a lawsuit fighting the Justice Department’s attempts to block its voter ID law.

“This Justice Department has sided with lawlessness time and time again,” Adams added. “Eric Holder is waging a war against election integrity.”

“Of course, I will have copies for all of you of my book,” Adams told the gathering. He offered to sign copies.