ACORN's New Orleans HQ Raided

The New Orleans headquarters of the criminal enterprise know as ACORN was raided by the feds this morning and computers seized. Bertha Lewis is unavailable for comment, apparently. She must have to coordinate her talking points with her boss at the White House first.

Federal agents seized computers and other related equipment from the New Orleans ACORN offices Friday morning, according to Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell.

The seizures occurred starting at 8 a.m. at the offices on Canal Street after reports from ACORN attorneys that some material that might have been important to an investigation had disappeared.

Caldwell said the action occurred as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations of theft and embezzlement.

Theft and embezzlement related to ACORN? Knock me over with a feather.

The IRS already has $2 million in liens against this ACORN office for failure to pay taxes, even though it reportedly is their most lucrative office.

Update: The story was changed to say it was state agents who conducted the seizure this morning, not federal. Big Government has additional information. More at NOLA.

Early last month, Caldwell's office issued subpoenas for records from ACORN's New Orleans office, where the organization -- now moving its national headquarters to Washington -- has long been based.

Today's search is an outgrowth of those subpoenas, which stemmed from an investigation by Caldwell's office into the embezellement of ACORN funds by Dale Rathke, a brother of the organization's founder, Wade Rathke, Herring said.

An ACORN official, speaking on background, said he believed the raid was ordered because of reports that workers for the organization loyal to Beth Butler, the recently fired head of ACORN's Louisiana branch, had been taking computer data and other items out of the office.