Despite a ban on Justice Department employees participating in events involving the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Attorney General Eric Holder will appear in a forum where CAIR is one of the major sponsors.

Josh Gerstein at Politico:

Attorney General Eric Holder has agreed to give a keynote speech next week to a Michigan group which includes the local branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations even though the FBI has formally severed contacts with the controversial Muslim civil rights organization.

On Nov. 19, Holder is scheduled to speak in Detroit to the first annual awards banquet of Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust, a coalition of several dozen law enforcement and community groups. An online registration form for the event includes the Council on American Islamic Relations-Michigan on a list of "official & participating organizations."

[...]

The FBI claims it cut "formal contacts" with CAIR after federal prosecutors in the 2007 criminal trial of officers of a Texas-based Islamic charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, introduced documents the government said showed links between CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood, which gave rise to Hamas.

"Until we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner," FBI Congressional liaison Richard Powers wrote in an April letter to Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).

The Justice Department referred questions about Holder's speech and CAIR's involvement to the FBI's field office in Detroit which, in turn, referred the questions to FBI headquarters in Washington.

CAIR was an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the Holy Land Foundation case due to some now former board members having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and some of the money raised by the group indirectly ending up in the hands of Hamas.

What good is a ban if the boss himself flaunts disobeying it?

Clearly, the FBI doesn't have a clue, as evidenced by the run around they gave Gerstein. So here you have the spectacle of our number one domestic counter terror agency having to defend its boss from charges that he is speaking to a group with ties to an outfit that supports terrorists.

What's wrong with that picture?