California Rural Legal Assistance violated federal law?

The inspector general of the federal Legal Services Corporation has issued a report highly critical of California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), which is funded by LSC. He:
found "substantial evidence the CRLA has violated federal law" by soliciting clients, working a fee-generating case, requesting attorney fees and associating with political activities... [they] apparently flouted congressional reforms blocking actions like lobbying and advocacy, getting involved in class-action litigation and representing illegal immigrants.

...Jose Padilla, CRLA's executive director, issued a statement Thursday night saying his organization was "doing exactly the job Congress and the Legal Services Corporation funded it to do."

...The report said that despite a federal prohibition against political activities, CRLA's executive director endorsed something called "The World Can't Wait: Drive Out the Bush Regime." Another company official co-hosted a fundraiser for Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. Both officials cited their CRLA affiliations in connection with the events...
As previously discussed, WCW freely admits that they were "initiated" by members of the Revolutionary Communist Party.

The report from the LSC IG was initiated by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), and the reason appears to be because of their advocacy for environmental causes that would appear to impact his farmer constituents.

Note the the CRLA's Foundation has also endorsed the AgJobs amnesty.

Comments

This is another piece of the pattern where we see government sponsoring activities exactly as if their intention were to get the most conflict between groups.
Officials act as if they believed that the key to power is irreconcilable intergroup conflicts.