The man whose name is at the top of the federal lawsuit against Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is that of Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez. This is the same man whose testimony in front of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights appeared to be the last straw for former trial attorney J. Christian Adams, who resigned from his job in the voting rights section of the Department of Justice on May 14, 2010.

Though Adams did not say Perez lied under oath, the implication was certainly there during part 2 of an interview he gave to Megyn Kelly of the Fox News Channel that aired on July 1, 2010. During that interview, Adams relayed parts of a conversation he had with Perez before the latter testified under oath (fast forward to the 1:45 mark of part 2):

Adams: For Tom Perez to go under oath to tell the same (false) story to the Civil Rights Commission, we wanted to make perfectly clear that he knew before he did that about the potential of his inaccurate testimony. We told him that but he still testified.

Kelly: Did this guy lie under oath?

Adams: I’m not a perjury expert. I know about the truth but I don’t know perjury.

If Perez didn’t tell the truth under oath, there’s only one other option. Adams went on to say that he “resigned later that afternoon,” again clearly implying a cause and effect relationship between what Perez testified to under oath in front of the Civil Rights Commission and what Adams knew about that testimony. (more…)

A three-month investigation by the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute found that a federal program intended to help disadvantaged business owners win contracts at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix is benefiting a small group of political insiders who are anything but disadvantaged.

The federal Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program (ACDBE or DBE) sets guidelines requiring minimum levels of participation by small businesses owned by minorities and women in airport concession contracting. Award winning investigative reporter Mark Flatten, formerly of the Mesa, Ariz.-based East Valley Tribune, shows that many of the DBE owners at Sky Harbor have a net worth in excess of $1 million and hold multiple city contracts, both on and off the airport.

Of the $52 million in sales attributed to disadvantaged businesses at Sky Harbor in fiscal year 2008, $15.4 million was generated by five DBEs owned by people active in politics. And of the more than 140 individual concession storefronts at Sky Harbor, city records identify only two that are not operated exclusively by a master contractor or owned, at least in part, by a certified DBE.

(more…)