MD AG won’t remove ACORN link from office website
Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler said that his office will continue to list the advocacy group ACORN on his office’s consumer protection division Web site, even though the group is facing scrutiny after several employees were shown on videos encouraging potential clients to file false tax returns and break other laws.
CLICK HERE for a link to Gansler’s site listing ACORN.
Gansler said by law he must list all non-profit organizations that provide foreclosure counseling, and cannot remove them unless the groups lose their non-profit tax exempt status.
‘The law forces us to post a listing of all organizations that do consumer protection work,” Gansler told WBAL’s Shari Elliker today.
However, Gansler said the listing is not an endorsement of ACORN.
“We don’t endorse any non-profits over any other non-profits in the foreclosure area,” Gansler said.
“We list all of the services that are available, and then people can make their own decisions.”
Gansler also admits he has not seen any of the ACORN tape that was first disclosed last week. The video shows two ACORN workers at the Baltimore office telling the a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute to file false tax returns, and list teenagers from El Salvador who work for their operation as dependants.
Gansler said that he cannot investigate whether the agency broke the law, or whether the filmmakers violated state wiretapping laws. Gansler said only the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s office can investigate, unless that office requests his office to investigate because of a conflict of interest.
“Me looking at a tape isn’t going to then give me jurisdiction, no more than if I looked at a tape of a murder in Florida,” Gansler said.
Reacting to questions from callers, Gansler said his office likely would not investigate whether ACORN’s status as a non-profit is legal, noting that’s an issue for the Maryland Department of State.
Gansler also told Elliker that he hasn’t received many questions about ACORN from other media outlets.
He added the ACORN videos, “are no more relevant to us…than a murder that takes place in Florida. I’m happy to answer questions about it, but I cannot change the law to give us jurisdiction over a case where we don’t have jurisdiction.”
If you wish to contact Gansler to make your opinion known on this matter, click here.
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1
I wonder if Attorney General Gansler feels it is OK to link to an organization that reportedly has forfeited the right to operate in Maryland. According to documents from the Maryland Dept of Assessments and Taxation that have been posted on the web, the corporate charters of ACORN Inc. and ACORN Housing were forfeited in 2006 and 2008, respectively, by the department’s Charter division and signed by Paul B. Anderson. So I guess Doug thinks it is right for an official State website to implicitly endorse this business that might be operating illegally in the State.
Comment by David — September 16, 2009 @ 9:17 pm
2
I called OAG Ganslers Office today and he is not going to do a thing. He said its up to Jessemy. However, if we can find that State Funds were used, we can hold Gansler over a barrel and make him investigate. Time to pickett Ganslers office.
Comment by Lord Cecil Calvert — September 18, 2009 @ 10:45 am
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[...] MD AG won’t remove ACORN link from office website [...]
Pingback by Gansler Fails to do His Job – We must call upon his resignation and Pat Jessemy « Augie’s Blog — September 18, 2009 @ 11:13 am
4
[...] Gansler had said the ACORN videos made in Baltimore “are no more relevant to us…than a murder that takes place [...]
Pingback by O’Malley says MD Attorney General to investigate ACORN | Inside Charm City: Baltimore, Maryland blog — September 21, 2009 @ 5:32 pm