The Pigford Murders: Double-Murder, Double-Cross, and Decapitation in the Delta

As we have been chronicling in our Pigford coverage this week, the amount of evidence of suggesting massive fraud is staggering and will continue to build and build.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack came out last week to say there have only been three cases of fraud out of the 20,000 claims.
Well Mr. Vilsack, why don’t [...]

The Pigford President: Obama Signs Black Farmers’ Settlement

WASHINGTON (AP) – American Indians and black farmers will be paid $4.6 billion to address claims of government mistreatment over many decades under landmark legislation President Barack Obama signed Wednesday.
The legislation “closes a long and unfortunate chapter in our history,” Obama said. “It’s finally time to make things right.”

At a signing ceremony at the White [...]

Obama Using Pigford Cash to Pay Campaign Debts?

One key to understanding the Pigford travesty is realizing how Barack Obama came to the point where today he is giving away billions in taxpayer dollars for potentially fraudulent Pigford-related claims. What may have begun as a legitimate 100 million dollar effort to repair genuine damages caused by alleged USDA discrimination evolved into what amounted to a pay-for-play scam [...]

Pigford Witness Report: 700 Claims Filed with My Name on Them, Many From Hundreds of Miles Away

From a USDA employee with close to 30 years experience:

Pigford was a nightmare. There was lots of money to be made—most of it by the trial lawyers. There were legitimate claims. It happens that people do sometimes discriminate and those people should be compensated. But really everyone was put in the [...]

Pigileaks: We Helped Get You Elected, Now Give Us Our Money: NBFA President John Boyd Letter to President Obama

In our report, we document two organizations, the Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association and the National Black Farmers Association.  These two groups round up tens of thousands of Pigford litigants and then lobby politicians with promises of votes and campaign cash in exchange for championing and funding their causes such as Pigford.
These two groups, and [...]

Pigford Whistle-Blower: Despite USDA Denials, Fraud Is ‘FBI Documented’

The Dept. of Agriculture has claimed that there were only three cases of fraudulent claims filed for Pigford settlement money. Jimmy Dismuke, one of the original farmers who brought suit against the USDA, told Big Government that he was personally aware of many more cases that the FBI investigated and documented in Arkansas, but for [...]

Pigileaks: The Pigford Applications

From an anonymous source in the capitol:
These are redacted Pigford applications that are all done by the same lawyer.  All of the claimants come from Arkansas (two are related) and the stories they write on the application are clearly boilerplate, probably done by the same paralegal.  Some of the words are even misspelled consistently [...]

Black Farmer Blows Whistle on Pigford: ‘If You Got a Potted Plant, That Makes You a Farmer’

Although the Pigford settlement story is a complex one that has major political implications, at the heart of it is a very simple question: does the settlement contain a significant amount of fraud?
If the Obama administration is telling the truth and there are only three cases of fraud out of 15,000 settled claims, then there’s [...]

Pigford Witness Report: Black Applicants Claim Racial Discrimination Against Black USDA Officials

The following is based on an interview with a current employee at the U.S. Department of Agriculture:
I’ve worked with the USDA for more than 25 years.  The situation with Pigford has been horrible.  There were cases of discrimination.  Perhaps 100 cases in the whole state of [redacted].  But the federal government paid out thousands of [...]

Meet Mike Espy: From Secretary of the Department of Agriculture to Suer of the Department of Agriculture

In the pantheon of civic behavior, ex-politicians leaving DC to become lobbyists to advocate on behalf of private interests against taxpayer interests is right up there among the most undesirable.
What’s even worse?  When a former Secretary of Agriculture – who is African-American – leaves his post and now spends his time trolling for and representing [...]

Pigileaks: Documents Suggest Pigford Lawyer Sabotaged Mediation That Would Have Saved Tax Payers Billions

This is a copy of a three-page letter between Michael Sitcov, Chief of the DOJ Federal Programs Branch, who is defending the government against the Pigford suit, and class action Pigford lawyer Al Pires. This letter shows Sitcov’s obvious anger at the shenanigans of Pires, and the fact that a well-running mediation, that would have [...]

Pigford Witness Report: Applicant Claimed Discrimination by Nonexistent Chicago USDA Office, Was Paid Anyway

The following is based on an interview with a current US Department of Agriculture employee who has worked for more than 20 years for the USDA:

It’s been ten years and I’ve really dealt with Pigford. It was a hard time. Frankly, I don’t like to talk about it anymore.
There was a lot of [...]

Black Farmer Mega-Settlement Clears Way for Discrimination Claims by Women, Hispanics

While we certainly hope the possibility of multi-billion dollar fraud was enough to pique your outrage, what may be the most frightening revelation from our research is that Pigford may be the proverbial tip of the farmer scam iceberg.  Fox News published this report suggesting as much:

The congressional approval of a whopping $4.6 billion settlement [...]

Pigford I Consent Decree: ’40 Acres and a Mule’

On April 14. 1999, Judge Paul Friedman signed a Consent Decree in the class action law suit PIGFORD, BREWINGTON v GLICKMAN and the US Department of Agriculture.
Following is a portion of the opinion written by Judge Friedman:

Forty acres and a mule. As the Civil War drew to a close, the United States government created the [...]

Former Secretary of Agriculture: More Claims Than Farmers; No One Fired at USDA: Something Just Doesn’t Add Up!

I am shocked by the recent passage of legislation by the US Congress that provides a settlement for discrimination lawsuits filed by black farmers against the United States Department of Agriculture.  With today’s focus on deficit spending and unaffordable government debt, Congress has decided to double the amount of dollars spent to date to settle [...]

A Black Farmer Blows the Whistle on the Black Farmer Settlement

I have 200 acres in Arkansas and have raised hogs.
Pigford is the biggest rip-off this country has ever known, and there are lots of people in positions of power that know it.  Politicians are using it to buy votes.  Trial lawyers are using it to get rich.

I personally know of people who have no connection [...]

Pigford: It’s the Fraud, Stupid (Not Race)

The whole Pigford affair brings up a host of issues that need to be addressed. Was there racial discrimination at the U.S. Department of Agriculture? All the sources we talked to said yes. Was there a need to redress the issue when necessary? Again, all the sources we talked to said [...]

Pigford: Obama’s Down Payment on the 2012 Rural South Vote

This past Tuesday, Nov 30th, the Democratically-controlled lame-duck House passed the $1.2 billion Black Farmer’s Settlement funding known as Pigford II. The previous week the bill had passed the Senate with assurances of strict measures to protect the taxpayers against the rampant fraud that has been widely documented from multiple sources in both the media [...]

Me & Mrs. Sherrod — And The Pigford II Black Farmers Settlement

I knew I was going to be whacked hard, but I didn’t know when.
On Thursday, July 15th, I warned NAACP president Ben Jealous to stop the race-baiting. I directed my ire at Jealous on the Scott Hennen radio show:
“I have tapes, a tape, of racism, and it’s an NAACP dinner. You want to play with [...]

The Pigford Shakedown: How the Black Farmers’ Cause Was Hijacked by Politicians, Trial Lawyers & Community Organizers — Leaving Us With a Billion Dollar Tab

By Gary Hewson, Peter Schweizer, and Andrew Breitbart


“It [Pigford] is a fair settlement, it is a just settlement, we think it’s important for congress to fund that settlement. We’re going to continue to make it a priority.”


—President Obama, September 10, 2010 press conference

“[Pigford is] the largest scam against the federal taxpayers in the history of the United States.”


—USDA Employee John Stringfellow