The Pigford affair has not been widely reported in the press.  It may get a little more publicity now that Shirley Sherrod has sued Andrew Breitbart, Larry O’Connor and “John Doe” for defamation.  It was reported in Power Line yesterday that Ms. Sherrod has retained the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis to bring her case against Andrew Breitbart.  The lawsuit will be venued in Washington, D.C. 

The article reports:

“Finally, I was surprised to see that Sherrod claims damages for her firing by the Department of Agriculture. This opens up a broad scope of discovery for the defendants. They will be entitled to investigate the factors that went into Sherrod’s firing by, for example, taking the deposition of Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and subpoenaing all emails, voicemail recordings and other documents in the possession of the Department of Agriculture and the White House that relate to her termination. I cannot imagine that the Obama administration would welcome this scrutiny, and one wonders whether the administration will pressure Sherrod to drop her case.”

The Agriculture Department might not want scutiny right now because of the Pigford affair.  Pigford is the case dealing with settlements made to black farmers who were discriminated against by the Agriculture Department in the past.  However, there are a few problems with the program.

In December of last year, BigGovernment.com reported:

I started to research Pigford and the more we looked into it, the more I realized that this was not a story that could be researched and told quickly. In fact, it was still unfolding. And even now, it still is.

This coming Wednesday, President Obama is slated to sign the Pigford II settlement.

But that will not be the end of the story. The American people deserve a full investigation and accounting.

Today, we’re releasing a report called “The Pigford Shakedown: How the Black Farmers’ Cause Was Hijacked by Politicians, Trial Lawyers & Community Organizers — Leaving Us With a Billion Dollar Tab.”

What have we discovered about Pigford so far?

Treasure troves of information from Lexis and Google. USDA whistleblowers. A former FBI agent who was on the verge of indictments. One of the originally discriminated-against black farmers with the goods. All these people paint a very clear picture of widespread fraud, and can testify to a complex web of bad players, including politicians, trial attorneys and community organizers.

I stumbled on the Pigford story in my defense of the Tea Party, so it’s a sweet irony that the Pigford story is exactly the kind of mess that makes the Tea Party so necessary. Politicians and trial attorneys bonded together to rip off the taxpayer, and even those farmers that were discriminated against were royally screwed.

Let me be clear, our investigation convincingly leads us to believe the USDA practiced discrimination against black farmers. Those wrongs must be rectified. But Pigford is wrought with a grotesque amount of fraud, while the truly aggrieved were mostly left high and dry.

The Pigford tale is about government run amok. It is also an indictment of the American media that is so blinded by ideology that it missed the big story yet again because taking out a political enemy was far more expedient. And furthermore it is why the American people need the Tea Party and new media as a checks and balances on corrupt politicians and their corrupt journalist counterparts.

Last week at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), Andrew Breitbart introduced his evidence of fraud in the Pigford settlement.   More information can be found at the website of the Ventura County Tea Party.  If Ms. Sherrod’s lawsuit goes forward, the discovery process is going to be very revealing.