On September 16, 2009, with much fanfare, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis announced that ACORN was hiring an independent auditor to review its internal processes.  Yesterday, the former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger produced a report finding ACORN, as a corporation, engaged in administrative negligence.

This of course has not stopped ACORN from declaring victory and calling the report a vindication.  Is anyone surprised that a report paid for by ACORN exonerates them?  The fact that this review didn’t even include an audit of ACORN’s financial statements speaks volumes.  Luckily for taxpayers, there are numerous federal and state investigations currently underway that should ultimately produce a legitimate finding regarding ACORN’s illegal activities.

The reality is ACORN has masqueraded as charitable organization in order to fund and advance a partisan political agenda.  There is no mechanism in place to follow where the use of taxpayer and charitable dollars end and where funds used to pay for their political activities begin.

Despite these findings of obvious negligence on ACORN’s behalf, the Proskauer Rose report was not an audit.  In fact, among the “7,000 pages” (19) Mr. Harshbarger reviewed, none of those pages included:

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(1)        Why did the Philadelphia office apparently waste taxpayer money and scarce police resources calling the police about a “verbal disturbance” by two people they were happy to help?

(2)        Why would ACORN file a police report after warmly helping us with our purported “prostitution business”?

(3)        Why would ACORN make a police complaint about a “verbal disturbance” when there was no disturbance?

(4)        Why did ACORN apparently call the police as many as 45 minutes after we left?

(5)        Why does ACORN apparently think that making and publishing an after-the-fact police complaint would cover up its willingness to help our “prostitution business” and its lies about what happened when we visited?

(Select “full screen” to view larger version of police report.)

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