Democrats Repeat Call to End Probe

Democrats on Capitol Hill renewed their plea Thursday for an end to a House investigation into last year’s election of Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), saying news that the Orange County Grand Jury has failed to issue criminal indictments in connection with illegal voter registration removes a shroud of suspicion from the case.

“Many Republicans have argued for a year now that this case required unprecedented scrutiny because of alleged voter fraud. The grand jury just knocked the foundation out of that argument,” said Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D-Conn.), the ranking minority member on the House Oversight Committee that is conducting the probe into Sanchez’s 984-vote victory over Republican Robert K. Dornan.

“With the absence of fraud, it’s time to dismiss this case,” he added.

Sanchez’s attorney, Wylie A. Aitken, faxed out a news release with a similar message--in capital letters. He called on Rep. William M. Thomas (R-Bakersfield), the oversight committee chairman, to “end this charade TODAY,” and asserted: “There is no criminality. THERE IS NO FRAUD.”

Aitken said the grand jury’s reported failure to indict yanked “the entire linchpin of the House Oversight Committee’s inquiry” into Dornan’s allegations of voter fraud.

“They said their investigation was prompted by the district attorney’s investigation,” he said. “With the underpinning of their justification for the inquiry having collapsed, this puts them in an awkward situation. But then, they’ve been on a witch hunt from the beginning.”

Thomas could not be reached for comment and his spokesman, Jason Poblete, declined comment until the Orange County district attorney’s office makes a formal announcement regarding its investigation.

Although there has been no public statement, sources told The Times this week that prosecutors are preparing to close the case without filing charges. The Times also reported Thursday that, after a presentation by prosecutors, the grand jury declined to indict anyone connected with Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, the immigrant-rights group suspected of registering noncitizens to vote in last fall’s election.

Oversight committee investigators are continuing to analyze lists of Orange County voters and data from the Immigration and Naturalization Service to determine how many noncitizens may have registered or voted illegally.

Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.), who is leading the task force investigating the Sanchez-Dornan election, did not return calls for comment Thursday. A spokesman for Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), who sits on the panel, declined to comment, saying only: “We’re not in the speculation business.”

Reached at his home in suburban Virginia, Dornan said, “This issue isn’t going away.” He said that he had been assured by an official at the district attorney’s office that “the investigation is continuing.”

“I don’t know why they chose not to indict. Maybe the jurors felt there wasn’t enough evidence,” Dornan said. “Or maybe Nativo did a good job of threatening people through the newspapers not to cooperate” with investigators.

Dornan’s attorney, Michael J. Schroeder, called The Times’ story “speculation” but said that even if there is no criminal indictment, it should have little bearing on the House probe, which is focused on determining the number of illegal votes cast not whether there was a criminal scheme for registering noncitizens.

In light of documents showing Hermandad registered noncitizens and groups leaders’ admissions that they had held an improper lottery, Schroeder said he expected indictments.

“It shouldn’t have any impact [on the election contest] regardless,” Schroeder said. “It would, nonetheless, surprise me greatly if the D.A.’s office has botched this case so completely that they couldn’t even catch [Lopez] who’s been saying publicly for a year that he expects an indictment.”

Democrats involved in the oversight probe acknowledged that the question of criminal conspiracy is a peripheral issue for the House, which solely has the responsibility to determine whether the election was duly won by Sanchez. But they said the failure to indict would give them a tactical and political advantage by knocking the wind from the Republicans’ stated goals of ferreting out fraud.

Thomas has often referred to the alleged criminal activity by Hermandad as a justification for the continued House probe.

“I don’t imagine that it’s going to have a direct effect on the investigation, but it does have some atmospheric value,” said a Democratic source. “It’s increasingly clear that nobody did anything wrong. People may have made [technical] mistakes, but nobody did anything that’s going to be treated as criminal.”

Sanchez chief of staff Steve Jost agreed and urged the oversight panel to dismiss the case as his boss requested back in January.

Fraud “has been the whole justification for their case,” Jost said. “It’s kind of the key brick in their bridge. You pull it out, and the whole damn bridge comes tumbling down.”