April 26th, 2013 at 2:27 pm
NYT Confirms Pigford Fraud
Remember the multi-layered Pigford scandal?
After years of criticisms by conservatives that the controversial lawsuit settlements were politically-engineered windfalls paid at taxpayers’ expense, The New York Times, flagship publication of the mainstream media, confirms every word:
But a succession of courts — and finally the Supreme Court — had rebuffed their pleas. Instead of an army of potential claimants, the government faced just 91 plaintiffs. Those cases, the government lawyers figured, could be dispatched at limited cost.
They were wrong.
On the heels of the Supreme Court’s ruling, interviews and records show, the Obama administration’s political appointees at the Justice and Agriculture Departments engineered a stunning turnabout: they committed $1.33 billion to compensate not just the 91 plaintiffs but thousands of Hispanic and female farmers who had never claimed bias in court.
The deal, several current and former government officials said, was fashioned in White House meetings despite the vehement objections — until now undisclosed — of career lawyers and agency officials who had argued that there was no credible evidence of widespread discrimination. What is more, some protested, the template for the deal — the $50,000 payouts to black farmers — had proved a magnet for fraud.
The total cost of the Pigford-related settlements could exceed $4.4 billion.
With the facts undisputed, it’s time to get answers and, perhaps, resignations.
December 9th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
More Pigford Revelations
In a wide-ranging piece, The Daily Caller explains the continuing mainstream media bias against Andrew Breitbart and anyone else who dares to shine a light on government corruption. Breitbart’s castigation during the Shirley Sherrod episode spurred him to research liberal claims he only spotlighted Sherrod’s discriminatory comments to an NAACP crowd as a quick gimmick. After four and a half months of interviews, Breitbart is in the early days of a multi-stage release on the depth and breadth of the Pigford settlement scandal that so far has cost taxpayers over $2 billion.
Since President Barack Obama has a direct link to the newest $1.15 billion funding the Pigford II settlement round, don’t be surprised if the White House comes under continuing pressure to defend itself for its legislation-for-votes deal-making.
November 22nd, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Senate Passes Pigford II Settlement Appropriation
The lame duck Congress passed a squealer of an appropriation last Friday: $1.15 billion funding the Pigford II class action lawsuit settlement. Earlier this year CFIF profiled Rep. Steve King (R-IA), a staunch opponent of this taxpayer-funded giveaway. As King and others have pointed out, Pigford I & II were initially brought to give black farmers a way to get compensation for past USDA discrimination in farm loans. To date, however, more black farmers have received payments under the settlement than the Census Bureau has records for. The result is quite possibly the biggest civil rights litigation scam in American history.
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