SWARK Today

Washington, D.C

– Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today led four of his colleagues in a letter to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz and Federal Trade Commissioner Inspector General Andrew Katsaros calling for an investigation into systemic media leaks. These leaks, all directed at the same media company, generated negative headlines about the Biden-Harris administration's antitrust goals and potentially violating ethics rules.

Co-signers of the letter included Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), Senators Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and Pete Ricketts (R-Nebraska).

In some cases, the senators wrote:

“These leaks generate negative publicity about the government's goals, while the targeted companies have no way to respond because they have not yet seen the possible lawsuits. Both the DOJ and FTC have ethics rules that prohibit leaking civil cases before they are filed.”

The full text of the letter can be found here 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 ask you to investigate whether the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission violated their own ethics rules by systematically leaking potential antitrust cases to a particular media company.

Since 2023, in at least 12 cases, Bloomberg News has broken the news that the Justice Department or the FTC were “preparing” or “ready” to take legal action before a lawsuit was filed. In fact, the same journalist reported on eleven of these cases. This pattern strongly suggests that certain DOJ and FTC officials are intentionally making legal actions public days or weeks before they are filed.

These leaks generate negative publicity about the government's goals, while the targeted companies have no way to respond because they have not yet seen the possible lawsuits. Both the DOJ and FTC have ethics rules that prohibit leaking civil cases before they are filed.[*]

Bloomberg News reports on DOJ and FTC antitrust actions ahead of filing a lawsuit

1. January 23, 2023: The Justice Department is poised to sue Google over its dominance in the digital advertising market
2. February 23, 2023: DOJ prepares antitrust lawsuit to block Adobe's $20 billion Figma deal
3. May 15, 2023: Amgen's $28 billion Horizon deal faces an unexpected FTC hurdle
4. June 29, 2023: Lina Khan comes for Amazon, armed with an antitrust lawsuit from the FTC
5. October 16, 2023: Real estate agents who collect up to 6% in fees will be subject to antitrust scrutiny
6. February 20, 2024: FTC and states to sue next week over Kroger-Albertsons deal
7. March 20, 2024: Justice Department sues Apple for antitrust violations
8. April 10, 2024: Nippon Steel's bid to buy U.S. Steel receives expanded antitrust scrutiny
9. April 17, 2024: Tapestry's $8.5 billion Capri deal faces a proposed FTC lawsuit
10. May 22, 2024: US Department of Justice seeks to dissolve Live Nation-Ticketmaster
11. July 10, 2024: FTC prepares lawsuit against drug traffickers over insulin discounts
12. September 23, 2024: Visa faces a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit over debit cards

Not only are these leaks unethical, they also harm these companies' employees, shareholders and others. If the companies have committed any wrongdoing, the government should definitely bring them to justice. But the Biden-Harris administration shouldn't try it on the liberal media. These leaks appear to be just another example of this administration using the administrative state as a weapon against politically disadvantaged opponents and critics, much like the Justice Department investigating parents at school board meetings or the FTC targeting Elon Musk and Twitter for failing to adequately censor conservatives takes.

We urge you to immediately investigate these systematic, unethical and potentially illegal leaks.

Sincerely,