Ex-Moveon leader challenged for KKK-style tactics

A public interest group that prosecutes government corruption announced an investigation into a left-leaning group that is warning contributors to conservative causes this election year about "potential dangers, including legal trouble, public exposure and watchdog groups digging through their lives."

Officials with Judicial Watch today said its investigation into Accountable America would focus on a nationwide effort by the "liberal activist group to intimidate supporters of Republican and conservative causes," because those activities may fall under a key federal civil rights law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act.

That law, Judicial Watch said, may come into play if "two or more persons conspire to prevent by force, intimidation, or threat, any citizen who is lawfully entitled to vote, from giving his support or advocacy in a legal manner, toward or in favor of the election of any lawfully qualified person as an elector for president or vice president, or as a member of Congress of the United States; or to injure any citizen in person or property on account of such support or advocacy."

"Threats and intimidation have no place in our democratic elections and are a violation of the law. This new front group, Accountable America, seems have crossed a legal line," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

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The New York Times said the group plans to send "warning" letters to nearly 10,000 of the biggest donors to Republican candidates and causes across the country in coming days in an effort to prevent similar groups from the right from getting off the ground this fall.

The group is led by Tom Matzzie, who has been involved with prominent left-wing efforts in recent years.

Matzzie told the newspaper he and his cohorts "want to stop the Swift Boating before it gets off the ground." He told the newspaper his effort is "going for the jugular."

The Times said the "warning" will alert donors who are thinking about supporting conservative or Republican causes of the possible ramifications, such as "legal trouble, public exposure" and others.

Matzzie told the newspaper he's raised $200,000 but expects to collect more than $500,000 by next week.

The report said Accountable America already has singled out major Republican donors such as Sheldon Adelson, a casino mogul, and Mel Sembler, a real estate magnate, who both have donated to Freedom's Watch.

A spokesman for Freedom's Watch, Ed Patru, said he wasn't particularly concerned about Matzzie's plan.

"This idea sounds even more sloppily thought out than his last venture, which, of course, went belly-up for lack of financial support," Patru told the Times.

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And Chris LaCivita, a GOP strategist who worked on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth effort during the 2004 campaign, said Matzzie's coalition likely will spur donors, instead of discouraging them.

"They’re not going to be intimidated by some pipsqueak on the kooky left," LaCivita told the Times.

Judicial Watch, however, said such intimidation could fall under the KKK Act.

"Attempts to intimidate individuals from participating in the presidential campaign can be a violation of federal law," the organization said.