Buried in Appendix 2 of this minority report issued by Republicans on the House Oversight committee (see also this press release) is this nugget (p. 82 of the pdf): “In 2004, Asheesh Agarwal, a Justice Department attorney, was assigned to write a memorandum (‘Agarwal Memo’) analyzing whether the Justice Department could prosecute Project Vote under the civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act (‘RICO’). The Agarwal Memo concluded, “such a claim would face a very high hurdle in satisfying the ‘business or property’ element of a [civil] RICO claim. We could probably get by a Rule 11 motion, but probably not a motion to dismiss.”
The memo itself was not released with the report, “Is ACORN Intentionally Structured as a Criminal Enterprise?” But it would not surprise me if it gets released once this report gets more publicity.