Settling with one hand, litigating with other: DOJ’s split approach to Camp Lejeune victims

The first Camp Lejeune water-contamination case will go to trial Oct. 26, with the Justice Department using a questionable expert to argue that the water didn’t cause illnesses at the military base. 

Meanwhile, the department under President Trump has paid over $421 million in settlements to compensate service members exposed to contaminated water and announced another $175 million in settlements back in March.

On Tuesday night, Trump, at a midterm campaign rally in North Carolina, where the outcome of a tight Senate race is among a handful across the country that will determine whether Republicans keep control of the upper chamber, touted the amount of settlement money his administration has already provided – and appeared to urge attendees to get out and vote to keep Congress in GOP control so that additional settlement money can be provided. 

"Tonight, I'm pleased to announce that my administration has delivered $1 billion in cash settlements to these veterans and their families, most of whom are based here, in addition to $3.3 billion we've provided for the VA [Department of Veterans Affairs] in less than two years. 

"And if we win the House and the Senate, I am directing the Department of Justice to settle all remaining legitimate claims as soon as possible and get it off the books and get it finished. This has gone on for years. ... If we don't win, there's no money."

In the DOJ's March settlement letter, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said: "At the direction of the president and attorney general, this Department of Justice has reprioritized approving settlements for Camp Lejeune victims and families, many of whom sadly had to wait years for justice. 

"I am proud of the work we have done in the past year to speed up the compensation approval process, and we will continue to approve settlements on a weekly basis.”

Yet the DOJ is also fighting payouts to Marines who were exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina from 1953 to 1987 and who developed cancer or other diseases linked to that water. 

For those decades, two of the camp's eight water supply systems were contaminated, with a third intermittently receiving contaminated water during shortages.

 As the DOJ noted in March, its Elective Option program is a way to avoid litigation and includes payments of $100,000 to $550,000 – “available to qualified claimants regardless of whether they were present in a part of the base that received contaminated water.”

While the DOJ acknowledged that Trump wants to compensate veterans, the department also plans to fight a settlement next week with a scientific case built on one retained expert, Dr. Julie Goodman, who concluded that the chemicals in the 246-square-acre camp's drinking water did not cause bladder cancer, kidney cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or Parkinson's disease, according to court documents reviewed by Just the News. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs treats those illnesses as presumptively linked to Camp Lejeune service.

Further, Goodman’s reports required “approximately 300 changes” months after she submitted them to the court for the first bellwether trial relating to Camp Lejeune compensation. 

On Feb. 7, 2025, Goodman submitted her reports stating the water at Camp Lejeune didn’t cause any health problems. The government stated in its designation of Goodman as a general-causation expert that her testimony’s importance “cannot be overstated.” 

After the plaintiffs in the case moved to get her excluded as an expert – which would require the U.S. government to prove that she was qualified, her testimony would be helpful using sufficient and reliable methods, and that she had applied those methods to the facts of the case – the DOJ responded with a massive document containing “approximately 300 changes” to Goodman’s reports. 

However, the changes were filed beyond a deadline, so U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Jones Jr., struck them from the record on March 16, 2025.

"Defendant failed repeatedly to meet its obligation for nine months, and the court will not punish Plaintiffs for Defendant's failure,” Jones wrote.

Goodman’s original, uncorrected data tables are still part of the court proceedings. Goodman did not respond to a Just the News inquiry prior to press time.

The ongoing legal case includes more than 1,500 individual lawsuits, consolidated into a master docket following former President Joe Biden’s signing of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022.

The DOJ did not respond to a Just the News inquiry prior to press time.