GAO opens ACORN investigation By: Jake Sherman December 17, 2009 01:52 PM EST A top House Republican says the Government Accountability Office has opened an investigation into ACORN’s use of taxpayer dollars.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) made the announcement Thursday in the course of demanding a separate FBI investigation into the group.
“Only an independent criminal investigation conducted by the FBI can get to the bottom of the nationwide allegations against ACORN,” Smith said in a news release.
The GAO investigation will be completed jointly with the executive branch’s inspector general.
More than 20 senators and several House members asked the GAO to investigate ACORN after videos showed some ACORN employees offering advice to actors posing as a prostitute and her politician boyfriend on how to set up a brothel.
Congress passed – and the president has signed – a bill containing a measure barring any further federal money from going to the group, but a federal court in New York has overturned that ban.
