Earlier this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memorandum in which he prohibited DOJ attorneys from entering into settlement agreements on behalf of the United States that require a payment or loan to any non-governmental person or entity that is not a party to the dispute.  The AG’s press release explained that the directive was intended to end the use of settlement funds to “to bankroll third party special interest groups or the political friends of whoever is in power.”

Last week, Senator Charles E. Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the AG in which he asked Mr. Sessions to explain whether any payments made by settling defendants to non-governmental third parties during the Obama Administration at the DOJ’s direction “could lawfully be rescinded and re-directed back into the General Fund of the U.S. Treasury.”  Mr. Grassley also asked Mr. Sessions to explain when the DOJ will begin to seek the rescission or re-direction of settlement payments “[i]f such a procedure is consistent with law and the Department’s authority.”

Mr. Grassley’s letter includes a request for a “complete list of all settlement agreements reached during the Obama administration that involved payments to non-governmental third parties” and related information for each of the settlements, including a full accounting of what payments have been made to non-governmental third parties to date.