Holder confirms: DOJ scuttled prosecution of Hamas-linked CAIR leader Omar Ahmad

Patrick Poole reported here a couple of weeks ago that this had happened. Now Holder has confirmed it, although he is still blaming Bush. But didn’t the Obama administration come in promising change, not slavish adherence to Bush-era policies?

Here is the case against Ahmad.

“Holder: DOJ nixed CAIR leader’s prosecution,” by Josh Gerstein in Politico, April 26 (thanks to Patrick Poole):

Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed Tuesday that on his watch the Justice Department decided not to prosecute a key leader of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. However, confirming a report last week on this blog–Holder noted that Bush-era officials also made an earlier decision not to proceed with the case.”The decision that was reached in this administration was the same that was reached in the Bush administration–a determination made that for a variety of reasons, looking at the facts and the law, a prosecution would not be appropriate. A review was done of that decision in this administration and the conclusion was reached that that earlier decision was an appropriate one,” Holder said in response to a question at a wide-ranging briefing for reporters.

Holder said the “decision wasn’t necessarily about CAIR as it was about a guy, an individual.” The attorney general did not name the person in question. However, in a letter to Holder earlier this month, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) said the decision pertained to CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad and came over the objection of Dallas-based federal prosecutors handling the investigation….

Holder told reporters Tuesday that the recent decision to decline prosecution was made by “career folks looking at the evidence.” However, a Justice Department spokesman clarified moments later that the decision was made by senior officials who are not career, but political appointees. Pajamas Media has reported the decision was made by the former head of the National Security Division, David Kris….

Posted by Robert on April 27, 2011 5:49 AM | 4 Comments