By E&P Staff
NEW YORK Ann Coulter has been cleared of allegations that she falsified her Florida voter registration and voted illegally -- after a high-level FBI agent made unsolicited phone calls to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office to vouch for the conservative pundit, according to a Friday piece by Jose Lambiet of the Palm Beach Post.
Lambiet wrote that when the FBI heard about the calls, it immediately launched an internal review of Supervisory Special Agent Jim Fitzgerald's involvement. "We're looking into it," FBI spokeswoman Ann Todd told Lambiet, while declining to say whether Fitzgerald acted on his own behalf, as an FBI agent, or on someone else's orders.
"This doesn't bode well in terms of the public's impression that celebrities receive preferential treatment," said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Arthur Anderson. "I'm curious about how anyone can justify the FBI's intrusion."
Coulter, the controversial author and Universal Press Syndicate columnist, allegedly cast her ballot in the wrong precinct in a February 2006 Palm Beach election after registering with an address that wasn't hers.
Lambiet wrote that a report by Detective Kristine Villa left the "clear impression" that Coulter's attorney, the Bush-administration-connected Marcos Jimenez, "stonewalled" Villa's investigation for five months. But in one conversation with Villa, Jimenez contended that Coulter may have used the wrong address to protect herself from an alleged stalker.
For Lambiet's full piece, click here.
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