10/24/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/24/2024 16:52
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Caroline Tabler or Patrick McCann (202) 224-2353
October 24, 2024
Cotton, Colleagues to DOJ and FTC: Systemic, Weaponized Leaks Violate Ethics Rules
Washington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today led four of his colleagues in a letter to Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz and Federal Trade Commissioner Inspector General Andrew Katsaros, demanding an investigation into systemic media leaks. These leaks, all to the same media outlet, resulted in negative headlines about the Biden-Harris administration's antitrust targets and potentially violated ethics rules.
Co-signers to the letter included Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), Senators Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), and Pete Ricketts (R-Nebraska).
In part, the senators wrote:
"These leaks result in negative headlines about the administration's targets while the targeted companies have no way to respond, as they haven't yet seen the potential lawsuits. Both DOJ and FTC have ethics rules that prohibit leaking civil cases before the cases are filed."
Full text of the letter may be found here and below.
October 24, 2024
The Honorable Michael Horowitz
United States Department of Justice
Office of the Inspector General
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
Mr. Andrew Katsaros Inspector General
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20580
Dear Inspectors General Horowitz and Katsaros,
We write asking you to investigate whether the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have violated their own ethics rules by systematically leaking potential antitrust cases to a specific media outlet.
Since 2023, Bloomberg News has broken the news in at least twelve instances that DOJ or FTC was "preparing" or "poised" to take legal action before a lawsuit was filed. Indeed, the same journalist reported on eleven of these cases. This pattern strongly suggests that certain officials at DOJ and FTC are intentionally publicizing legal action days or weeks before filing.
These leaks result in negative headlines about the administration's targets while the targeted companies have no way to respond, as they haven't yet seen the potential lawsuits. Both DOJ and FTC have ethics rules that prohibit leaking civil cases before the cases are filed.[*]
Bloomberg News reporting DOJ and FTC antitrust actions before the filing of a lawsuit
These leaks aren't just unethical, but they harm these companies' employees, shareholders, and others. If the companies have engaged in wrongdoing, by all means the government should try them in a court of law. But the Biden-Harris administration shouldn't try them in the liberal media. These leaks appear to be simply one more instance of this administration weaponizing the administrative state against politically disfavored opponents and critics, much like DOJ investigating parents at school-board meetings or the FTC targeting Elon Musk and Twitter for insufficient censorship of conservatives.
We urge you to investigate promptly these systematic, unethical, and potentially illegal leaks.
Sincerely,
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