Thursday, September 20, 2012

Resignation calls fly at Justice Dept. spokeswoman over Media Matters collaboration

Several targets of a collaborative relationship between Justice Department Office of Public Affairs director Tracy Schmaler and the liberal message group Media Matters for America told The Daily Caller that Schmaler’s conduct is grounds for her resignation, or for the termination of her employment.
And members of Congress have told TheDC that Media Matters’ enviable tax-exempt status may be in jeopardy as a result of that collusion.
Emails TheDC obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show Schmaler — Attorney General Eric Holder’s top press defender — and Media Matters staffers working together to attack reporters covering DOJ scandals and other administration critics. (RELATED: Emails reveal Justice Dept. regularly enlists Media Matters to spin press)
One target of Media Matters and Schmaler, now-former DOJ attorney Chris Coates, told TheDC he thinks Schmaler should step down. “I think that a resignation would be in order from her,” Coates said in a phone interview.
Coates was still a DOJ employee when Schmaler worked with Media Matters in the fall of 2010 to attack him. He was at one time the chief of the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Rights Section, a high-ranking position for a civil servant who was not politically appointed.
While Schmaler and Media Matters collaborated to attack Coates’ reputation, he was prosecuting cases for the U.S. Attorney’s office in South Carolina.
“I do find it unusual that apparently during the time that I was prosecuting criminal cases in South Carolina for the Department of Justice, the Department’s press spokesman was clandestinely providing information to chosen media outlets to try to defame me,” Coates told TheDC.

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