By As President Joe Biden’s term comes to an end, the focus has shifted to Vice President Kamala Harris, who may soon have her own family members lining up to pick up where Hunter left off. At the center of this potential power shift is Tony West, the husband of Harris’s sister, Maya Harris, and a seasoned legal strategist with a controversial history.
West, who previously led the Justice Department’s Civil Division under the Obama administration, could be poised to pick up where Hunter leaves off. West’s background in navigating complex legal landscapes and his connections to powerful political figures position him as a key player in the continuation of what critics see as ethically dubious practices within the administration.
During his time at the Department of Justice, West used his power to expand the use of the Judgment Fund, a government account used to pay legal settlements. Originally, Congress had to approve any settlement of a civil suit against the federal government that exceeded $100,000. This measure was designed to maintain congressional control over the government’s finances, ensuring transparency and accountability in the disbursement of large sums of public money.
However, in 1977, Congress removed the cap, effectively giving the DOJ the authority to settle cases of any amount without direct congressional oversight. This change, while intended to alleviate the burden on Congress, opened the door to potential misuse. For decades, the system operated with a degree of integrity, but that began to change when Kamala’s brother-in-law` took the reins of the Civil Division in 2009.
Under West’s leadership, the DOJ’s approach to settlements appeared to shift dramatically, looking less like a fund for settlements and more like a slush fund for rogue liberals in the Department of Justice to fund progressive groups. An internal email from West’s deputy at the time hinted at the potential for settlements to be used as a tool for political favors, asking colleagues to “explain to Tony the best way to allocate some money toward an organization of our choosing.”
For example, writes The New York Post, 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.”
Eventually, the newspaper explained, the settlement from West to his progressive friends “ballooned to over $4.4 billion as additional plaintiffs were added, including Native American farmers.”
The government’s statistical expert told The Post that he was appalled by West’s blatant corruption: “‘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.’”
Over the past six weeks, according to The New York Times, Kamala’s brother-in-law “has emerged as a major force behind Ms. Harris’s campaign and its record-setting fund-raising, but also as a concern for some progressives who want her to take a hard line against big business. He is expected to remain involved in the final 92 days of the race, with Uber announcing on Friday that Mr. West would soon take an unpaid leave of absence to focus on the White House run.
Ms. Harris’s campaign brought on several senior political operatives on Friday, some of whom worked on former President Barack Obama’s campaigns, to add to the team that had been assembled to re-elect Mr. Biden. But none has the advantage of family ties like her brother-in-law, who has held top positions in the Justice Department and corporate America while advising Ms. Harris’s campaigns since she ran for San Francisco district attorney in 2003.
And Mr. West, who is serving as an unpaid adviser, has already made a mark on her campaign.”
West’s involvement, including his recommendation of Eric Holder to lead the vetting process for Harris’s running mate, underscores that while Harris tries to pretend she’s running away from her liberal stance, she’s only trying to hide them. West’s influence, combined with his connections to big business and his controversial history at the DOJ, has led some to view Harris’s potential presidency as a blend of Barack Obama’s culture war politics with Biden’s ethical lapses for personal gain.
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