Steve King

Rep. Steve King Has Witnesses Ready to Testify about Pigford Fraud

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Tue, 01/18/2011 - 13:03

Rep. Steve King photoWhen Congress last November approved $1.15 billion to settle residual claims of racial discrimination by black farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), supporters lauded the vote and President Obama's signature the following month. This, they said, was justice belatedly done. Yet critics justifiably have argued that the class-action suit rests on an edifice of fraud. One of them, a member of Congress, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, is taking action. He's lined up a pair of unnamed witnesses, one a black farmer and the other a longtime USDA employee, willing to tell all. Early this month, Rep. King announced these individuals indicated a willingness to reveal to Congress that plaintiffs' attorneys engaged in an unscrupulous campaign to sign up co-plaintiffs, many of whom never farmed in their lives. The issue now is whether he can persuade his colleagues to hold a hearing.

Congressmen Charge Black Farmer Settlement Rife With Fraud

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Thu, 09/30/2010 - 15:28

National Legal and Policy Center more than once has called it a shakedown. Now three members of Congress are suggesting as much. Yesterday Reps. Steve King, R-Iowa, Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., held a press conference to call for a Justice Department probe of an out-of-court class-action settlement against the U.S. Department of Agriculture initiated by black farmers during the late Nineties.

Pelosi AWOL as Mollohan Still Controls Budget of Those Investigating Him

Submitted by John Carlisle on Thu, 07/16/2009 - 19:47

MollahanRep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) has been under investigation for more than three years after NLPC exposed his cozy relationships with the recipients of earmarks that he sponsored. Yet, as chairman of an Appropriations subcommittee, he has jurisdiction over the budget of the Justice Department, which includes the FBI, the very entity that is investigating him.

Mollohan claims he recused himself in a January 2007 letter to the full Committee Chairman David Obey (D-WI) but he refuses to release the letter. Republicans say they have never seen it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is AWOL on the issue, having said nothing since she forced Mollohan out as ranking member of the Ethics Committee in 2006. At the time, she blamed NLPC for Mollohan’s problems.

Syndicate content