WASHINGTON — An internal investigation of community-organizing group ACORN concluded there was no criminal conduct by employees caught on videos offering advice on how to hide assets and falsify lending documents.
The report, which ACORN’s chief executive described as “part vindication, part constructive criticism and complete road map for the future,” was unlikely to stem continuing political criticisms of the group and its efforts.
In a 47-page assessment that former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger was commissioned by the organization to do, he said ACORN leaders “appear committed to effect reform and are on their way to preserving ACORN and its mission in a reduced size and scope.”
Harshbarger’s report says ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, should return to its roots, focusing on community organizing, and should hire an independent ethics officer to oversee an internal governance program that is already underway.
The report, the product of a two-month investigation, said ACORN’s management had not moved fast enough to institute reforms after an alleged eight-year coverup by ACORN founder Wade Rathke of an embezzlement by his brother.
ACORN’s leaders are “now reaping what Rathke sowed,” wrote Harshbarger.
The organization’s leadership has made reforms in finances and governance a priority, the Harshbarger report stated. However, it added, this focus has not yet been matched by similar attention to delivering services to ACORN’s clients.
The videos of ACORN staffers offering advice to a woman and a man posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend triggered a firestorm of criticism this fall, with some ACORN employees appearing willing to support illegal schemes involving tax advice, misuse of public funds and illegal trafficking in children.
The videos “feed the impression that ACORN believes it is above the law,” stated the Harshbarger report.
In an interview with reporters, Harshbarger said some of the behavior was inappropriate but added there is a difference between behaving unprofessionally and behaving illegally. The examination “did not find any illegal conduct by ACORN staff,” Harshbarger said.
Asked how much ACORN paid Harshbarger’s law firm to conduct the examination, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis said the board was the entity that would have to decide whether to release the amount.
“How surprising is it that a report paid for by ACORN exonerates them?” Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, said in a statement.
The report is “a whitewashed ‘internal investigation’ by a Democrat Party hack from Massachusetts,” said conservative columnist Andrew Breitbart, who is being sued by ACORN along with James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, who played the prostitute and her boyfriend in the videos.
