Late last week, a Department of Justice staffer named Stephanie Celandine Gyamfi was reported by a blogger from PJ Media as having posted to her personal Facebook account about Mississippi. For some random out-of-stater to have a negative opinion about Mississippi is, unfortunately, nothing new. However, when that person is a key figure in regulating Mississippi with authority over current regulatory matters at the Department of Justice, it takes on another level of importance.
Mississippi has two issues that need regulatory approval from the Department of Justice. First is Mississippi’s voter ID statute. Mississippi has joined several other states in creating a constitutional voter ID statute, and it is subject (as any change to voting law) to DOJ approval under the Voting Rights Act. Also, Mississippi’s legislative redistricting is subject to similar scrutiny and approval.
To have a person listed as a lead analyst at the DOJ openly airing derogatory comments about the entire state regarding areas of which she has input is beyond-the-pale scary.
Even more troubling is the fact that Gyamfi appears to have played a pretty overtly political role regarding confidential information. According to the PJ Media and a columnist who was a career DOJ employee, Gyamfi had some role in leaking confidential DOJ information to liberal media sites for political use during a DOJ Inspector General investigation in December 2011:
The genesis of Ms. Gyamfi’s perjury is apparently rooted in political attacks on the Bush Justice Department. Throughout 2005-2007, numerous attorney-client privileged documents, confidential personnel information, and other sensitive legal materials were leaked from inside the Voting Section to the Washington Post and various left-wing blogs.
One of the most prominent leaks involved the Voting Section’s privileged, internal analysis of the 2003 Texas congressional redistricting plan, submitted to the Civil Rights Division in October 2003 for review under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The contents of the internal memorandum appeared on the front page of the Washington Post on Dec. 2, 2005, to great fanfare from Democrats on Capitol Hill and their surrogates in the liberal blogosphere.
…According to numerous sources within the Section, Ms. Gyamfi had been asked in two separate interviews whether she was involved in the leaking of confidential and privileged information out of the Voting Section. Each time, she flatly denied any knowledge as to who was responsible for the leaks. In a third interview, she was once again questioned about her role in the leaks. At first, she adamantly denied involvement. Then, however, she was confronted with e-mail documents rebutting her testimony.
At that point, she immediately broke down and confessed that she had lied to the investigators three separate times.
Gyamfi is one of those people who will have influence over DOJ approval and the possible power to disenfranchise literally millions of Mississippi voters. Voter ID was passed in a ballot referendum and subsequent law. Redistricting was ordered in accordance with Mississippi law and its constitution. Particularly in the Mississippi House, where the redistricting process is difficult just by the sheer numbers involved, the House leadership did a masterful job of achieving a bipartisan result. Both measures could be waived away by a few good soldiers for the Obama administration.
Response to the Gyamfi incident has been strong. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann condemned the remarks in no uncertain terms. Congressmen Gregg Harper, Alan Nunnelee and Steven Palazzo signed a joint letter to DOJ Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez.
To put it simply, Gyamfi needs to be investigated and removed from any action related to Mississippi now.
Although this has received virtually no traction on Mississippi newspapers of record or on their Op-Ed pages, we will certainly be staying on top of it here at Y’allPolitics.
