ACORN, the community organizing group targeted by Republican critics who have accused it of voter fraud on behalf of Democrats and other illegalities, didn't directly receive any Justice Department funding, according to an inspector general's report.

Inspector General Glenn Fine did find, however, that some Justice Department money did indirectly get to ACORN or affiliates of the group.

An excerpt from the report:

Our review did not find any direct DOJ grants to ACORN during the past 7 years. However, as described below, we found that one recipient of DOJ grant funds entered into a sub-agreement with ACORN for program activities. In addition, we identified one direct grant of DOJ funds to an affiliate of ACORN. We also identified three instances in which a DOJ grantee entered into a sub-award with an ACORN affiliate. Thus, in total, we found that ACORN and its affiliates received one direct grant and four sub-awards totaling approximately $200,000 between fiscal years (FY) 2002 and 2009. In addition, during this period we determined that ACORN affiliates submitted five applications for DOJ grant funds that were denied.

 

As NPR's Ari Shapiro reported for the network's newscast:

Congress began to scrutinize ACORN after undercover activists filmed ACORN workers apparently giving advice on how to avoid taxes for a child prostitution business.

The House and Senate both voted to cut off ACORN from federal money.

Congressman Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, asked whether the Justice Department has ever given grants to ACORN or its affiliates.

The new report by Inspector General Glenn Fine says ACORN did not receive any money directly from the Justice Department.

But some of the group's affiliates did.

And three groups that won Justice Department grants distributed money to ACORN.

In total, all those awards add up to $200,000 dollars.

That's a fraction of the $53 million ACORN and its affiliates have received in federal funds over the last 15 years.