Obama Carries on the Pigford Fraud

A former Secretary of Agriculture has now expressed concern about the obvious fraud involved in the multi-billion-dollar settlement of the black “farmer” and other lawsuits against the government — but why has everyone failed to note that all of these settlements are actually illegal under federal law? When Congress was stampeded to pass unprecedented legislation in 1998 to facilitate the Pigford v. Glickman suit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), some wise but unknown person included a limiting provision in that bill to minimize participation by phony claimants. But, when the Clinton Administration agreed to a settlement of the case in 1999, that provision was carefully evaded in the consent decree, opening the door to massive fraud. Judge Paul Friedman, a Clinton appointee, quickly approved the deal, resulting in payment of more than $1 billion to nearly 16,000 black claimants, virtually none of whom met that statutory requirement. Now the Obama regime is on the brink of settling a second Pigford suit for another $1.25 billion, and the proposed settlement again subverts and ignores the law to encourage and reward massive fraud — this time by as many as 80,000 prospective claimants. Obama recently signed legislation appropriating $1.15 billion more for black farmer claims, and his administration claims there are safeguards against fraud in the settlement. In fact, not only has the Obama Justice Department facilitated fraud, but it has continued the practice of ignoring and subverting the statutory provision designed to stop fraud...more