Justice Dept. Tells Administration To Continue Existing ACORN Contracts

Obama's Justice Department really knows how to take care of the President's buddies especially the criminal enterprise ACORN. According to the NY Times, the Justice department has directed the Administration to continue to pay ACORN for any services whose contracts were signed before congress cut off funds.

Section 163 of Division B (“Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2010”) of Public Law 111-68 does not direct or authorize the Department of Housing and Urban Development to breach a pre-existing binding contractual obligation to make payments to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or its affiliates, subsidiaries, or allied organizations where doing so would give rise to contractual liability.

In other words the Justice Department is saying you can't sign new contracts with ACORN but you need to continue existing contracts.

The Justice Department has concluded that the Obama administration can lawfully pay the community group Acorn for services provided under contracts signed before Congress enacted a law banning the government from providing funds to the group.

The department’s conclusion, laid out in a recently disclosed five-page memorandum from David Barron, the acting assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, adds a new wrinkle to a sharp political debate over the antipoverty group’s activities and recent efforts to distance the government from it.

It is interesting that rather than order a full RICO-type investigation of this group that has been accused/or convicted of breaking the law in 14 states, on charges ranging from voter fraud, to embezzlement and misuse of public funds, our attorney general has shown disregard for applying the law to friends of the progressive movement, and even directs the president to give them even more money.

Since 1994, Acorn, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has received about $53 million in federal aid, much of it grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for providing various services related to affordable housing. On Oct. 1, President Obama signed into law a spending bill that included a provision that said no taxpayer funds — including funds authorized by previous legislation — could be “provided to” the group or its affiliates.

A Housing and Urban Development lawyer asked the Justice Department whether the new law meant that pre-existing contracts with Acorn should be broken. But in a memorandum signed Oct. 23 and posted online this week, Mr. Barron said the government should continue to make payments to Acorn as required by such contracts.

...The deputy director of national operations for ACORN, Brian Kettenring, praised Mr. Barron’s decision. “We are pleased that commitments will be honored relative to Acorn’s work to help keep America’s working families facing foreclosure in their homes,” he said.

Yep, thanks to Mr. Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder, ACORN will have more money to help underage prostitutes some adequate housing. More Change that only ACORN could Hope for.