The Justice Department has adamantly stood behind the decision to reduce the case to the charges against Samir Shabazz. "The top career attorneys in the Civil Rights Division determined that the facts and the law did not support pursuing the claims against three of the defendants," Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler told the Washington Independent last August. In testimony before the commission in May, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Tom Perez "said there was insufficient evidence that the party was responsible for the incident" and "noted that the voter intimidation provision is rarely used, and pointed to similar incidents during the Bush years in which minorities were the alleged victims but the division did not file such a lawsuit."

"Reasonable people of good faith can take a look at evidence and draw different conclusions from the evidence," said Perez of the disagreement within the department about pursuing wider charges. "This is a case about career people disagreeing with career people." In a statement released after Adams testified, Democratic Commissioner Michael Yaki decried the investigation as being "incredibly shallow, expensive, and partisan." "These proceedings are reminiscent of an inquisition, a star chamber, and a witch hunt. They are not worthy of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights," said Yaki.

But it isn't just Democrats and Obama administration officials who are denouncing the "witch hunt" into the Department's decision-making. In an article for the National Review, Abigail Thernstrom, the Vice Chair of the Civil Rights Commission, implored conservatives to "forget about the New Black Panther Party case; it is very small potatoes."

Thernstrom was specifically critical of Adams' charges, writing that "a disaffected former Justice Department attorney has written: 'We had indications that polling-place thugs were deployed elsewhere.' 'Indications'? Again, evidence has yet to be offered." Indeed, in the initial memo arguing for a lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party, Adams and his fellow lawyers admitted that they "were unable to ascertain where or whether the NBPP actually deployed any other members at polling locations throughout the United States."

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