Obama DOJ blocked conservative groups from settlement funds

[GURPS]

While Eric Holder was U.S. attorney general, the Justice Department allowed prosecutors to strike agreements compelling big companies to give money to outside groups not connected to their cases to meet settlement burdens. Republican lawmakers long have decried those payments as a “slush fund” that boosted liberal groups, and the Trump DOJ ended the practice earlier this year.

But internal Justice Department emails released Tuesday by Goodlatte indicated that not only were officials involved in determining what organizations would get the money, but also Justice Department officials may have intervened to make sure the settlements didn’t go to conservative groups.

In one such email in July 2014, a senior Justice Department official expressed “concerns” about what groups would receive settlement money from Citigroup — saying they didn’t want money going to a group that does “conservative property-rights legal services.”

“Concerns include: a) not allowing Citi to pick a statewide intermediary like the Pacific Legal Foundation (does conservative property-rights legal services),” the official, whose name is redacted in the email, wrote under the title of “Acting Senior Counselor for Access to Justice.”



'Smoking gun' email reveals Obama DOJ blocked conservative groups from settlement funds, GOP lawmaker says

 

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Common sense tells us that was happening anyway, and you can include the IRS in that group, and this new disclosure just seems to confirm it, again.

 

[GURPS]

Emails Appear To Confirm That President Obama's DOJ Funneled 'Slush Fund' Money To Leftist Orgs
A $1 billion settlement with the "big banks" appeared to go directly to left-leaning activist organizations.


Yesterday, the same committee said that emails from Associate Attorney General Tony West (obtained by the Daily Wire and linked here), show West and other DOJ officials had been asking colleagues how to allocate the "slush fund" money to organizations "of our choosing," and requesting advice on how to avoid directing settlement funds to organizations who leaned conservative.

In one email, a senior official even appears to admit that they worded a memo with a mind to “not allowing Citi to pick a statewide intermediary like the Pacific Legal Foundation" because PLF “does conservative property-rights free legal services.”

The internal discussion, Goodlate argued on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon, created an atmosphere of collusion, which ensured that only progressive activist organizations like The National Council of La Raza, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and the National Urban League, received funds, while conservative organizations who also advocated for improved property rights policies were left out in the cold.

The National Council of La Raza, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and the National Urban League, of course, all went on to be key organizations in the anti-Trump "resistance," though DOJ officials could not have known that at the time - largely because they all likely assumed Hillary Clinton would be President Obama's immediate successor.