Well, well. Look who allegedly spent a little time under oath in front of a federal grand jury: it’s Mr. Hiding the Sockpuppet, Hans Von Spakovsky. Via Murray Waas:

The grand jury has been investigating allegations that a former senior Bush administration appointee in the Civil Rights Division, Bradley Schlozman, gave false or misleading testimony on a variety of topics to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sources close to the investigation say that the grand jury is also more broadly examining whether Schlozman and other Department officials violated civil service laws by screening Civil Rights attorneys for political affiliation while hiring them….

Earlier this year, Spakovsky withdrew his name from nomination by President Bush to serve on the Federal Election Commission after repeatedly claiming a faulty memory or citing the attorney-client privilege to fend off questions from senators about allegedly using his position to restrict voting rights for minorities — and that he hindered an investigation of Republican officeholders in Minnesota accused of discriminating against Native American voters.

Three current and former Justice Department officials were questioned by investigators about allegations that Schlozman–with Spakovsky advising and assisting him– made decisions whether to hire and fire attorneys in the Civil Rights Divison on the basis of their political affiliation.

I’d like to say that I’m shocked, but after the last two reports on politicization from the DOJ’s OIG and OPR, it’s not exactly surprising.

What is a bit surprising is that these subpoenas had to be issued at all — apparently Mr. Von Spakovsky, along with Jason Torchinsky and another former DOJ official refused to cooperate with investigators working on Schlozman’s case. As one source told Murray:

…The sources said that investigators working the case as well as senior Department officials were distressed that some of the Justice Department’s most senior political appointees refused to co-operate with an investigation by the very Department they once served.

"What does this say for the average person on the street if we want them to co-operate?" said a senior official, "How can we say to the ordinary citizen that you should report crimes, tell the government what you know, when the people who ran the Department of Justice thumb their noses at the system?"

Damn straight. You cannot have a former DOJ official at this high a level hiding information in an official investigation of wrongdoing and potential perjury of a subordinate. Here’s a clue to Von Spakovsky and others within the Bush Administration: the law applies to you, too, and it’s about damned time you realized that. Or were made to realize it.

Marcy had some thoughts when the news of the Scholzman investigation broke as to why he might be under scrutiny. As you can see, there are any number of potential reasons, if not several at once, given Mr. Schlozman’s rampantly partisan history in hirings, firings, bragadoccio, and politicization of prosecutorial decisions, just to name a few potential avenues of despair for him and his compadres now that they’ve been caught in a web of their own alleged lying.

In other words, it couldn’t happen to a more deserving group, in my opinion.

As I said earlier when mobilizing efforts to prevent Mr. Von Spakovsky from being appointed to the FEC:

Mr. Von Spakovsky has repeatedly attempted to skew that vote for political purposes — and for ginned-up, picayune reasons designed for the sole purpose of electing Republican candidates.

…von Spakovsky attempted to force widespread purging of voter rolls based on a very restrictive reading of election law (which von Spakovsky knew inside and out, since he helped draft the Help America Vote Act). "For example," the lawyers write, "in one letter, he advocated for a policy keeping eligible citizens off the voter rolls for typos and other mistakes by election officials." And as McClatchy detailed last month, he extended his activities to making sure the Election Assistance Commission, a tiny agency that serves as the government’s election information clearinghouse, published research that conformed to the voter-fraud orthodoxy. He was a busy man.

You either win honestly and fairly — or you are a lying cheat. I think it is clear in which category Mr. von Spakovsky belongs.

Von Spakovsky refused to even give a statement to federal investigators about the facts surrounding questions about his former boss, Brad Schlozman and testimony that Mr. Schlozman gave under oath to Congress, among other matters. I can say honestly that there is no doubt in my mind into which category Mr. Von Spakovsky should be placed. Appalling lack of commitment to the rule of law, and a decided lack of integrity to boot.

How’s that hire working for you now, Heritage Foundation? The Muck has more.

(YouTube via TPM. Von Spakovsky answers questions about his Georgia voter law scheme.)