Ben Johnson, The White House Watch
Although the Republican Party is often too complicit or cowardly to hold President Obama accountable for his actions, it is finally showing some tenacity in investigating Obama’s “apparent crime” of partisan fundraising inside the White House. On Monday, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder “to request a Department of Justice investigation into an apparent crime committed by President Barack Obama.” In late June, Obama recorded the “Dinner with Barack and Joe” video, asking Democratic donors to enter a raffle to win dinner with the president and vice president, in the White House Map Room.
The Hatch Act makes it illegal to “solicit…a donation of money or other thing of value in connection with a Federal, State, or local election, while in any room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties.”
Priebus wrote, “The Map Room has been used for a myriad of official duties, including the administration of the oath of office to President Obama by Chief Justice Roberts and the launch of ‘The Campaign to Cut Waste.’”
“If President Obama recorded the video in the Map Room, then it appears he has committed a crime under federal law.”
Priebus noted in the letter he could have called for the appointment of a special prosecutor….
