By Steve Hunley

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced the Department of Justice will no longer engage in the practice of “third party settlements.”  This was a common practice by the Department of Justice when Eric Holder was the Attorney General under the Obama administration.  Leftists have once again gnashed their teeth and wailed when General Sessions announced the Department of Justice would no longer require settlements to “third party organizations” who were “neither victims nor parties” to lawsuits.  General Sessions stated he believes those settlements “should go first to the victims and then to the American people.”  Sessions said the purpose was “not to bankroll third-party special interest groups or the political friends” of whichever political party happens to be in power.

The practice of corporations settling lawsuits with the federal government by funding leftist organizations continued under Attorney General Loretta Lynch.  None of the entities receiving money were connected to the lawsuits settled by the government.  The beneficiaries of these windfalls were selected by, naturally, the Department of Justice.  During the Obama administration, these designated organizations competed for money with the actual victims.  The Economist estimates the amount of such settlements by the Obama Justice Department runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars.  Two of the groups receiving money from settlements under the Obama administration are La Raza, a group which promotes and advocates against deportation and urges amnesty for illegal aliens.  Another group receiving largesse from settlements was Operation Hope, a group based in California, which presses banks to make what they refer to as “dignity loans.”  In essence, they urge banks to make loans to people who cannot qualify for a mortgage loan because they have no means of paying it back.

The practice of handing out money to groups from settlements was always questionable and many scholars contend it has been illegal, as only Congress has the right to appropriate money.

Consider for a moment having been injured and winning a settlement of $100,000 and your attorney takes his cut and then distributes the money to “Mothers Against Drunk Driving.”  Irrespective of how much good one might think the group does, I very much doubt any victim would appreciate his or her attorney redistributing his or her settlement.  It became a common practice under the Obama Justice Department.  Private lawyers have no right to give away a client’s settlement money and neither does a government lawyer have the right to give away money belonging to the taxpayers once victims have been compensated.

Yet for years, that was precisely what the Obama administration did.  How many folks were aware of this common practice?  Over the years, the Obama administration distributed what may have been hundreds of billions of dollars which could have gone into the Treasury.  Did you see the New York Times or the Washington Post clamor for Obama’s impeachment?  Did you see any mainstream media outlet urge that Eric Holder or Loretta Lynch be removed from office, especially when there was no legal basis for robbing the taxpayers to give huge settlements to groups that were never parties to the lawsuit being settled?  Why, of course not.  Most of the mainstream media thought it was hunky dory that the Justice Department would extort money from corporations and give money to progressive groups they believe promoted social justice.  With those folks the law matters not at all and they considered it further evidence Barack Obama was indeed the Messiah.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions deserves commendation for his new policy, which actually takes the taxpayer into consideration and stops a policy that probably wasn’t even legal to begin with.

Those folks who ceaselessly jabber about “compassion” and “fairness” never once give any thought to the taxpayers – – – you and me, the people who work and pay our taxes – – – nor in the end do they really think about the victims.  I suppose it is currently fashionable, especially among leftists, not to place blame precisely where it belongs.  They blame Donald Trump for everything, real or imagined, yet cannot bring themselves to truly condemn terrorist acts, no matter how brutal.  Even I was astonished to see one journalist blame the terror attacks in Manchester, England on the “toxic masculinity” of men.

Hypocrisy is one thing that really is universal and equal.  It comes in every form and shape and race and color and gender.