In the first set of Executive Orders signed today by Joe Biden was the reversal of a DOJ policy put in place by Attorney General Jeff Sessions which prohibited provisions in settlement agreements in civil litigation that directed the opposing party to pay the money from the settlement to some third-party interest group that DOJ believed could put the money to better use than having it go into the Treasury of the United States.

This was a practice that came into vogue during the Obama Administration. The government would bring a civil action against some offending corporation, and then offer the corporation an opportunity to settle the dispute with a condition that required the corporation to pay some or all of the settlement money to a third party designated by the government. //

Attorney General Jeff Sessions banned the practice after he took office. Legislation was later introduced in Congress — the “Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2017” — which would have prohibited government officials from including any such provision in settlement agreements involving the Department of Justice. The legislation passed the House but was never acted upon by the Senate. //

The Biden Administration — before there is even a new Attorney General — has decided to resurrect that old grift in order to get the spigot of money turned back on for left-wing interest groups who look to the Justice Department to be their collection agency.