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http:// --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Obituaries Weather Archive Hot Topics Forum Photo Gallery Past Readers Polls Revels Etcetera Backpage O-Zone Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Online Games Movie Preview October 21, 2006 Feds search Calif. candidate's office By Jennifer Delson, Christopher Goffard and Mai Tran Los Angeles Times GARDEN GROVE, Calif. — Even as he prepared to step before the cameras Friday in an effort to mend his increasingly tattered candidacy for Congress, the worst week of Tan Nguyen's political career got bleaker still, as state agents raided his campaign headquarters and home, hauling off computers and bags of evidence. The investigation by California Department of Justice agents stems from a racially charged letter that Nguyen admits his office sent to about 14,000 registered voters in Orange County. The letter, which warned immigrants they could be jailed or deported if they tried to vote, has spurred condemnation across the political spectrum and an investigation into possible voting rights violations. Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant who is running to unseat U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., maintains that he neither wrote nor authorized the letter, claiming it was the work of a campaign manager he refused to name. According to the head of the Orange County Republican Party, however, the mail house that sent the letter said Nguyen had a direct hand in it. The state agents arrived both at Nguyen's campaign office in Garden Grove and his home in Santa Ana on Friday with search warrants, scouring files, plumbing cabinets, and bagging evidence. Nguyen had to cancel a planned afternoon news conference, which his lawyer, David Wiechert, said would be rescheduled for next week. "I do not believe he'll be arrested," said Wiechert, who specializes in white-collar criminal defense work. "My belief is he'll be cleared. He's asserted his innocence." The lawyer said agents from the state attorney general's office had questioned Nguyen for two hours, and that he was cooperating fully with their investigation. "A search doesn't mean the person whose office is being searched is guilty," Wiechert added. "This is a political firestorm of high-ranking Republicans and Democrats speculating about an investigation they have no knowledge of." According to a source close to the investigation, the attorney general's office has determined that a Los Angeles Police Department officer, who is a friend of a worker in Nguyen's office, paid $4,000 on a credit card for bulk mailing of the letter, and used an alias. Besides the letter, the attorney general's office is also investigating a racially charged poster that was recently hung in a Santa Ana park. Translated from Spanish, the poster reads, "If you are a resident or are illegal, if you vote, you will be thrown out." State Attorney General spokesman Nathan Barankin said the posters were "under review," but would not say whether that probe would be tied to the letter investigation. "We can't rule (the posters) in or out," he said. Javier Gonzalez, executive director of Strengthening Our Lives, a union-based voter drive campaign, said the poster's use of the word "resident" was deceptive. He said his mother, a naturalized U.S. citizen, still considers herself a "U.S. resident," and might think from reading the letter that she should not vote. Meanwhile, the letter from Nguyen's office, which has prompted the GOP to disown him, continues to generate howls of indignation. "When you tell immigrants who have become citizens they can go to jail for voting, you are spreading lies, not liberty," said a news release from the American Civil Liberties Union calling for Orange County Registrar Neal Kelley to send out letters correcting misinformation in the original letter. Staff writer Christine Hanley contributed to this report. Leave a Comment: Advertisement: Advertisement: Paid Advertising Inkjet Printers Student Loans Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Advertisement: Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.