“WASHINGTON — A public advocacy group filed a legal challenge Monday to block implementation of a record $13 billion civil settlement between Attorney General Eric Holder and Wall Street powerhouse JP Morgan Chase.

“The group, Better Markets, argued that reaching a settlement 300 times the nearest similar settlement without any sort of judicial review amounted to a power grab by the executive branch and Holder.

“It reads the separation of powers right out of the Constitution,” Better Markets president Dennis Kelleher said at a news conference. Kelleher is a former top Democratic lawyer in the Senate and a onetime securities litigator at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

“Holder negotiated privately with JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to reach the November 2013 deal, in which Wall Street’s top bank did not admit guilt and simply agreed to a statement of facts. The privately brokered deal, said Kelleher, put on ice plans by federal prosecutors in Sacramento, Calif., to seek an injunction against JP Morgan Chase.”

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