In a letter to the United States Attorney, William Barr, Senator Chuck Grassley raised numerous concerns involving implementation of the Granston Memorandum which purported to provide guidance to Department of Justice attorneys to seek dismissal of non-intervened False Claims Act cases. The vague criteria include a lack of government resources necessary to allow the prosecution of the claims to continue. The trend among some DOJ attorneys is to move to dismiss or threaten dismissal in cases in which they decline intervention. This trend troubles Senator Grassley. In his letter, Senator Grassley directs the reader to cases where the courts have held the DOJ lacked valid grounds to seek dismissal. He also notes that allowing dismissal on the basis of cost will encourage fraud defendants to seek voluminous documents from government agencies to cause the DOJ lawyers to say the matter is too expensive to proceed, and bolster a motion to dismiss. Senator Grassley sets forth specific questions regarding the DOJ policies, and requests a response by September 18, 2019. Stay tuned for follow up.
You can find Senator Grassley’s news release and letter here.