Obama administration officials repeatedly denied that politics had anything to do with its Justice Department’s (DOJ) decision to abandon its lawsuit against the Black Panthers, a “civil rights” group that brandished weapons, blocked a polling station and hurled racial insults at voters on Election Day 2008. In fact, at least one Justice Department official swore to it under oath.

But according to evidence uncovered by Judicial Watch, this is yet another Obama administration falsehood.

On September 21, released a draft Vaughn index prepared by the Department of Justice (DOJ) that shows that the two top political appointees at the DOJ were involved in the decision to dismiss the voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense (NBPP).

The index, which we acquired pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, describes documents the government is withholding from the public. Among those documents are internal DOJ emails regarding the Black Panther case between the highest political appointees inside the DOJ, including former Deputy Attorney General David Ogden and the Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, the second and third ranking officials at the DOJ.

Here’s one example: A May 10, 2009, email from Associate Attorney General Perrelli to Deputy Associate Attorney General and former Democratic election lawyer Sam Hirsh. “Where are we on the Black Panther case?” Perrelli asks in the subject header. The email also includes Deputy Attorney General Ogden’s “current thoughts on the case.”

Does this sound like Perrelli and Ogden were on the outside looking in at the Black Panther decision? Not a chance. But wait, there’s more.

Another email, from former Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King, dated May 12, 2009, was distributed to Attorney General Eric Holder through Odgen and Perrelli. Entitled, “Weekly Report for the Week ending May 8, 2009,” the email “Identifies matters deemed significant and highlights issues for the senior offices, including an update on a planned course of action in the NBPP (New Black Panther Party) litigation.”

Now, as I mentioned, the evidence uncovered by Judicial Watch directly contradicts the sworn testimony of a top Obama White House official.

Attorney General Thomas Perez testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on May 14, 2010. The Commission, an independent, bipartisan unit of the federal government charged with investigating and reporting on civil rights issues, initiated a probe of the DOJ’s decision to drop its lawsuit. During the hearing, Perez was asked directly regarding the involvement of political leaders in the decision to dismiss the Black Panther case. And here’s the exchange:

COMMISSIONER KIRSANOW: Was there any political leadership involved in the decision not to pursue this particular case any further than it was?

ASST. ATTY. GEN. PEREZ: No. The decisions were made by Loretta King in consultation with Steve Rosenbaum, who is the Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General.

Perez also suggested that the dispute was merely “a case of career people disagreeing with career people.”

Well now we know this is false. And we have the evidence to prove it.

Overall, the index describes 122 documents (totaling at least 611 pages) that the Obama DOJ is withholding from the public in their entirety. A federal court hearing in the matter is scheduled on October 5, 2010, in Washington, DC, before U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton. We plan to ask the Court to require the Obama DOJ to release these (and other) secret documents about this scandal and its cover-up.

But we’re not stopping there.

In a separate but related matter, Judicial Watch also filed filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit last week against the DOJ to obtain records related to meetings between Perrelli and White House officials regarding the Black Panther decision.

Here’s what we’re after: “Any and all records of Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli concerning meetings with the White House on the Justice Department’s voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party. The time frame for this request is from January 20, 2009, to June 15, 2009.”

On March 26, 2010, the DOJ informed Judicial Watch that it had conducted a search for documents, and found “no records responsive to [JW’s] request.”

But we found this extremely difficult to believe. After all, a number of press outlets have reported at least nine meetings between Perrelli and White House officials between March 25 and May 27, 2009, regarding the Black Panther case. So we got tired of the run-around and sued.

Why should anyone believe the DOJ’s story regarding Perrelli’s meetings? We now know DOJ officials falsely stated that no political appointees were involved in the Black Panther decision. We know the DOJ continues to withhold hundreds of pages of records that could shed light on this scandal. And we know multiple press reports came to the same conclusion: Perrelli met with the White House specifically on the Black Panther matter. And the DOJ cannot find a single record related to these meetings?

Watch for yourself the hearing of the of U.S. Commission on Civil Rights I witnessed last week, during which there was much explosive discussion and testimony regarding not only our work but the generally corrupt policies at the Obama/Holder DOJ.