Kamala Harris' Brother-In-Law Allegedly Funneled Billions to Democrat-Aligned Groups: Report
A new report suggests that Vice President Kamala Harris' brother-in-law, Tony West, played a key role in orchestrating what may be the largest transfer of taxpayer dollars to left-leaning groups in U.S. history.
Tony West, married to Harris’ sister Maya, previously led the Justice Department’s Civil Division. According to The New York Post, during his tenure, West directed significant settlements to organizations aligned with the Democratic Party, even in cases where the Department of Justice appeared to be on the verge of victory.
"Up until 1977, Congress had to approve any settlement of a civil lawsuit against the Federal government over $100,000," The Post highlighted.
However, due to numerous cases, this cap was removed, giving the DOJ considerable leeway to allocate funds as it saw fit through a newly created “Judgment Fund.”
This pool of money operates under a veil of secrecy, with limited information on recipients, case details, or even the attorneys involved.
West assumed leadership of the department in 2009, during the Obama administration, and that’s when things took a notable turn, The Post continued:
Once West arrived, his deputy emailed colleagues asking “can you explain to Tony the best way to allocate some money toward an organization of our choosing?”
Settlements became the vehicle for paying off political allies.
For example, in late 2010, after a Supreme Court victory, DOJ lawyers were on the cusp of winning a decade-long fight against discrimination claims by 91 Hispanic and female farmers.
That’s when West intervened and, as The New York Times put it, “engineered a stunning turnabout.”
DOJ agreed to a $1.33 billion settlement which included thousands of farmers who had never claimed bias.
The deal was made over the “vehement objections” of the department’s career lawyers.
The Times’s investigative report described West’s settlement as a “runaway train, driven by racial politics . . . and law firms that stand to gain more than $130 million in fees.”
The projected settlement size ballooned to over $4.4 billion as additional plaintiffs were added, including Native American farmers.
"If they had gone to trial, the government would have prevailed . . . It was just a joke. . . . I was so disgusted. It was simply buying the support of the Native Americans," a government statistical expert commented.
This settlement turned out to be a windfall for the lead attorney of the plaintiffs, who was notably a member of Obama and Biden’s transition team.
West was also accused of pressuring corporations during his leadership of the fund, The Post revealed.
In several bank settlements, West’s team imposed increasingly strict conditions requiring the institutions to make nearly a billion dollars in mandatory donations to activist groups with Democratic ties. These donations were given double credit toward meeting required targets, making them more appealing than direct relief to victims of the housing crisis.
West's team reportedly structured these terms to exclusively benefit their political allies, deliberately excluding conservative organizations. Internal emails revealed that West’s deputies adjusted a settlement's donation terms to block banks from choosing a "conservative" property rights group as a recipient.
In 2016, a settlement with Volkswagen obligated the company to pay $2 billion to fund a White House electric car initiative that Congress had previously rejected.
Recipients of these funds were so thrilled that they circulated an email suggesting that a statue of West should be erected and that they should "bow down to this statue each day after we receive our $200,000+."
Vice President Harris, as attorney general of California, was reportedly deeply involved in the scandal, having signed settlements on behalf of her state.
Unlike many federal government scandals, this one appears to lack bipartisan involvement.
One of the first actions taken by former President Donald Trump’s attorney general upon entering office was to ban settlement slush funds.
In contrast, one of the initial moves by the Biden-Harris administration was to reverse that ban.