On his first day in office, President Joe Biden is calling for the Justice Department to look into reinstating a controversial Obama-era practice that allowed prosecutors to make settlement agreements that resulted in defendants paying outside groups instead of victims or the government. The $17 billion Bank of America settlement is a perfect example of the misuse of settlements as Bank of America was required to give millions of dollars to third party activist groups.
Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning issued the following statement in opposition to the policy:
“Joe Biden waded deep into the swamp on his first day in office as he took action seeking to restore an Obama-era practice of enriching liberal interest groups rather than actual victims in settlements resulting from federal lawsuits.
“President Trump’s first Attorney General Jeff Sessions had put an end to the practice of the Justice Department designating certain liberal groups as the beneficiaries of forced corporate contributions when they pled guilty in a government lawsuit enriching far left advocacy groups hundreds of millions of dollars in payola. In that 2017 decision, General Sessions released a statement saying, “When the federal government settles a case against a corporate wrongdoer, any settlement funds should go first to the victims and then to the American people—not to bankroll third-party special interest groups or the political friends of whoever is in power.’
“While it may surprise those who voted for the invisible man during the presidential campaign that Biden would make it a first day priority to resume Justice Department shake downs of corporations to elicit funds for his supporters, it certainly didn’t surprise me. The swamp loves the wash, rinse, repeat money cycle where the government shakes down a wealthy individual, diverting the money to a liberal interest group, which then supports the liberal politicians and policies.”
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