Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – A civil rights commission’s report that criticizes the Justice Department’s handling of a voter intimidation case was delayed Friday when one of the commissioners walked out of a meeting in protest.

He called the commission’s planned vote on whether to approve the report a “kangaroo court” against the Obama administration.

The Justice Department is accused in the report of allowing the New Black Panther Party to intimidate white witnesses during a 2008 election in Philadelphia.

The Justice Department dropped its suit against the group, a fact some political analysts say could hurt the Obama administration’s public image and jeopardize Democrats’ chances during the Nov. 2 election next week.

The heavily conservative U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was scheduled to vote on whether to approve a draft copy of the report on the Philadelphia incident. A vote of approval would mean it could be used as evidence for any follow-up investigations or hearings by Congress.

However, Commissioner Michael Yaki, a Democratic appointee, walked out of the meeting, leaving the commission without a quorum.

A quorum of five commissioners is required under U.S. Commission on Civil Rights rules to approve reports or take any other official action.

“It’s not my responsibility to make a quorum for this kangaroo court,” Yaki told reporters after he walked out of the meeting. “They want to score political points against the Obama Justice Department.”

Yaki is a former senior adviser to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The report accuses the Justice Department of failing to protect white voters from intimidation and being “at war with its core mission of guaranteeing equal protection (under) the laws for all Americans.”

The report was written by the majority members of the commission.

They denied political motivations for accusations in the report. They also accused the Justice Department of refusing to turn over evidence and telling witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation.

The civil rights commission is scheduled to meet again next week and try again for a quorum vote on the 131-page report.

The year-long investigation leading to the report resulted from an incident in which two New Black Panther Party members wearing paramilitary uniforms were videotaped in Philadelphia in 2008.

One of the men carried a nightstick as they stood outside the polling place on Election Day.

No voters filed complaints but conservatives were outraged when the videotape ran on a local television station’s news broadcast the next day.

The Bush administration’s Justice Department sued the two men in uniforms, the New Black Panther Party and its chairman.

The lawsuit still was pending when President Obama took office.

Shortly afterward, the Justice Department dismissed the claims against three of the defendants and obtained a narrowly-defined injunction against a fourth.

The civil rights commission’s draft report said the Justice Department engaged in “repeated attempts to obscure” the role of political appointees in the lawsuit dismissal.

It also said the lawsuit dismissal raises “questions about what the [Justice] Department is trying to hide.”

The report was compiled from media reports and testimony from two Justice Department attorneys.

A Justice Department spokeswoman denied the agency makes decisions on who to prosecute based on race. She also said the Justice Department turned over about 4,000 pages of documents to assist the civil rights commission in its investigation.

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