Why won't the DOJ let Christopher Coates testify on the Panthers case?

Kirsanow said that much of the information the Commission is seeking from Coates is not privileged at all. “One of the reasons we would like to hear from Chris Coates — and this particular line of testimony would not be privileged, so there’s absolutely no reason not to provide it — is to verify that all of these things Christian Adams told us occurred because Chris Coates was right there,” he said.

The Commission members say that they are interested in matters that are larger than the NBPP case dismissal. One issue is whether high-level political appointees within the DOJ have enunciated a policy or tolerate a practice of enforcing civil rights laws in a racially discriminatory manner? A second is whether a high-level political appointee within the DOJ enunciated a policy or tolerated a practice of not enforcing Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act that ensures the eligibility of voters? And a third is whether there is hostility within the ranks of the Civil Rights Division toward enforcing the nation’s civil rights laws in an unbiased or blind manner?

“I want to know,” U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Commissioner Todd Gaziano said to TheDC, “why can’t we talk to the man who originally made the decision to bring the case against the Black Panthers? The Justice Department is hiding something and I think they need to explain.”