Biden Administration Changes Rules To Get Graft Flowing To Leftwing Cronies Again. By Lawrence Person.

My Working Theory is that every single expansion of the welfare state is merely a means to pass graft into the hands of Democratic Party cronies and leftwing activists.

Today’s data point: Merrick Garland is bringing back Obama-era legally-mandated slush funds for leftwing activist groups scrapped by Trump.

President Biden’s Department of Justice appears to be rebuilding a dubious money chain known as “settlement slush funds.” The Obama DOJ used these funds to channel cash from corporate settlements to bankroll private progressive organizations, circumventing the budget and oversight authority of Congress.

On May 5, Attorney General Merrick Garland revoked a Trump-era rule that specifically prohibited the DOJ from directing funds from corporate settlements to finance third-party organizations and causes. The use of these so-called settlement slush funds became so rampant under the Obama administration that the House passed the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act in 2017 in an attempt to end it. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate but failed to pass.

Under the Obama Justice Department, corporate fines were directed to organizations including the Sierra Club, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and the National Council of La Raza.

So payoff to the left, payoff to the left, and payoff to the left. …

In order to stop this practice, in June 2017 then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions enacted what has become known as the “Sessions Rule,” prohibiting third-party settlements at the DOJ. Immediately upon assuming office in January 2021, however, President Biden directed his administration to review this rule, which his DOJ has now rescinded.

“The fact that they’re spending resources on getting rid of an anti-corruption regulation shows that they intend to engage in the corruption that the regulation was intended to prevent,” said Ted Frank, senior attorney at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute. “It’s a good way to avoid voter accountability, and it gives power to the DOJ that Congress didn’t give them. They can direct hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars to pet causes.”

Of course they will. The Democratic Party and its vast panoply of left-wing fellow travelers are corrupt, parasitic institutions that can only thrive when they suck the lifeblood out of taxpayers.

The only surprise here is that it took over a year for the Biden Administration to give their cronies the greenlight to stick their snouts back into the trough.

The tribe in charge gets the loot. Why bother rigging an election otherwise?