National Center for Public Policy Research: This communication with Americans, Holder said, helped lead him to challenge state voter protection measures, such as the Texas and South Carolina voter ID laws, in federal court. The National Center requested copies of those communications. The law specifies that DOJ was to comply by May 11. The DOJ emailed its response on November 9. The DOJ said, “no records responsive to your request were located.” So, while General Holder, in the words of the FOIA request, claimed his department’s “policy shift to vigorously challenge voter identification laws” was spurred by his communications with Americans concerned about voting rights, the DOJ has no record of any such communications. “
“On April 13, the National Center sent a FOIA request to the U.S. Department of Justice concerning a December 13, 2011 speech by Attorney General Eric Holder in which Holder claimed he was hearing “a consistent drumbeat of concern from many Americans, who – often for the first time in their lives – now have reason to believe that we are failing to live up to one of our nation’s most noble, and essential, ideals [protecting voting rights].”
I’m not so sure Holder was lying when he talked about the constant drumbeat as much as DOJ’s FOIA response was another denial in a pattern of denials and delays.