The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, popularly known as ACORN, has not violated the terms under which it has received federal funding in the last five years, according to a government report released on Tuesday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.).

The report, which was requested by Conyers and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The 82-page report details the research organization’s survey of 46 federal, state, and local investigations concerning ACORN  — 11 of which are still pending — and of several congressional probes.

Conyers pointed out that CRS found “no instances of individuals who were allegedly registered to vote improperly by ACORN or its employees and who were reported “attempting to vote at the polls. And, the report says that  ACORN has received federal funds, mostly from the departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development, 48 times in the last five years. In none of those cases did  Acorn violate the terms of the funding.

The CRS report does not include findings from a just-announced Government Accountability Office investigation of ACORN’s use of federal funds. House GOP Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said they were informed of the investigation in a Dec. 7 letter from GAO. Smith and Issa were not immediately available for comment on the CRS report.

ACORN, a controversial community organizing group that focuses largely on voter registration and housing,  received unfavorable publicity when documentary filmmakers earlier this year released undercover videos that they described as showing ACORN workers giving them advice on how to buy property to use as a brothel.  ACORN was already under attack from conservatives and many Republicans on Capitol Hill.

The videos spurred Congress to action. The House passed legislation in September known as the Defund ACORN Act of 2009, and several appropriations bills contained a prohibition on any funds in the bill going to ACORN.

Those actions, in turn, prompted some members of Congress to question whether the legislation respresented unconstitutional bills of attainder. The CRS report raises those questions as well, noting that “courts ‘may have a sufficient basis’ to conclude that the legislation ‘violates the prohibition against bills of attainder.’” However, according to the report, the limited term of the defunding mandated in the appropriations bills “could arguably be justified as an expedience necessary to address an issue of immediate congressional concern, while allowing Congress sufficient time to consider a longer term solution.”

Lamar Smith (gov)

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) yesterday sent this letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to name a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of criminal conduct against the social justice group ACORN, according to a news release issued this morning.

The organization, which helped register voters for President Obama last year, has long been a target of conservatives. But Democrats have also recently abandoned the group, after two conservative activists posing as brothel owners caught ACORN employees on hidden camera offering advice for obtaining housing assistance. Last month, the House voted to cut off federal funds to ACORN in a bipartisan tally, 345-75.

Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago, has worked with ACORN in the past. In 1991, he ran a voter registration drive for Project Vote, which at the time was a partner of ACORN. In 1995, as an attorney in private practice, he represented ACORN attorneys in a challenge to the state of Illinois over its refusal to implement a federal law. ACORN also registered voters last year to support Obama’s presidential campaign.

“I am very concerned that the President’s previous advocacy on behalf [of] ACORN, his work with ACORN, and ACORN’s support of his candidacy create, at the least, an appearance of a conflict of interest for Department officials, particularly political appointees who serve at the please of the President,” Smith wrote.

He added, “The President’s ties to ACORN could place improper pressure on the Department’s political appointees to reach conclusions they believe to be favored by the President. In addition, the President’s ties create the appearance of improper political influence that will otherwise taint any conclusions that the Department may reach with regard to whether or not to investigate and prosecute ACORN employees or affiliated individuals.”