Sen. Chuck Grassley believes the Department of Justice has moved to dismiss false claims cases without considering the merits or conducting cost-benefit analyses.

In a September 4 letter to Attorney General William Barr, Grassley writes that he is concerned about the DOJ’s “efforts to dismiss greater numbers of qui tam  (false claims) cases for reasons that appear primarily unrelated to the merits of individual cases. Those efforts rely at least in part on vague and at times questionable concerns over prerogatives or limited government resources to handle the cases.”

The Iowa Republican notes that such actions “could undermine the purpose of the False Claims Act by discouraging whistleblowers and dismissing potentially serious fraud on the taxpayers.”

Grassley and others have raised concerns about the increase in the DOJ’s motions dismiss cases brought on the government’s behalf. The change follows the emergence of the 2018 Granston memo, which recommended government dismissal of whistleblower cases that were costly or lacked merit.
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