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

1. January 23, 2023: DOJ Poised to Sue Google Over Digital Ad Market Dominance

2. February 23, 2023: DOJ Preps Antitrust Suit to Block Adobe’s $20 Billion Figma Deal

3. May 15, 2023: Amgen’s $28 Billion Horizon Deal Faces Unexpected FTC Hurdle

4. June 29, 2023: Lina Khan Is Coming for Amazon, Armed With an FTC Antitrust Suit

5. October 16, 2023: Real Estate Brokers Pocketing Up to 6% in Fees Draw Antitrust Scrutiny

6. February 20, 2024: FTC, States to Sue Over Kroger-Albertsons Deal Next Week

7. March 20, 2024: Justice Department to Sue Apple for Antitrust Violations

8. April 10, 2024: Nippon Steel Bid to Buy US Steel Gets Extended Antitrust Review

9. April 17, 2024: Tapestry’s $8.5 Billion Capri Deal Faces Planned FTC Lawsuit

10. May 22, 2024: US Justice Department to Seek Breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

11. July 10, 2024: FTC Preparing Suit Against Drug Middlemen Over Insulin Rebates

12. September 23, 2024: Visa Faces Justice Department Antitrust Case on Debit Cards

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,                           

Cotton to Biden: Continued support for the UNRWA funds terrorist sctivities and prolongs war

UNGM Image

Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today wrote a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to impose terrorism sanctions on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The Biden-Harris administration’s support for the UNRWA threatens American national security and enables continued violence while American hostages remain in Gaza. 

In part, Senator Cotton wrote:

“Congress blocked funding to UNRWA earlier this year because of its ties to Hamas. Yet your administration continues to ignore both legislative intent and plain common sense. Your administration’s inadequate oversight has almost certainly enabled U.S. funds to flow to UNRWA affiliates. You even lectured Israel about its proposal to designate UNRWA as a terrorist organization. Your administration has become UNRWA’s most prominent apologist and best advocate. ”

Full text of the letter may be found here and below.

October 23, 2024

President Joseph R. Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500                               

I write to protest the Biden-Harris administration’s continued support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and to urge you to impose terrorism sanctions on the agency. Your advocacy for the Hamas-affiliated UNRWA as “indispensable” to humanitarian aid in Gaza undercuts America’s national-security interests by prolonging the Israel-Hamas war, enabling continued violence, and sustaining enemies actively holding American hostages in Gaza.

Congress blocked funding to UNRWA earlier this year because of its ties to Hamas. Yet your administration continues to ignore both legislative intent and plain common sense. Your administration’s inadequate oversight has almost certainly enabled U.S. funds to flow to UNRWA affiliates. You even lectured Israel about its proposal to designate UNRWA as a terrorist organization. Your administration has become UNRWA’s most prominent apologist and best advocate. 

The evidence for UNRWA’s complicity in Hamas’s terrorist activity is overwhelming. UNRWA itself admitted that many of its members participated in the October 7 attacks. Hamas terrorists have fired against Israel from UNRWA clinics. Israel has found weapons stashes in UNRWA facilities as well as tunnel shafts around and under those facilities. An Israeli hostage revealed he had been held in a UNRWA employee’s house. And Israel reportedly found a passport belonging to a UNRWA teacher on Yahya Sinwar’s body this week as well as UNRWA food bags in his bunker.

You must end your support for those who abet terrorism. I call on you to use your authority under Executive Order 13224 to designate UNRWA as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity, allowing the U.S. to impose sanctions and block UNRWA assets.

Sincerely,                           

Tom Cotton
United States Senator                     

Cotton to Biden: Brief Congress on Leak Investigation

Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today wrote a letter to President Biden asking for consistent updates on the investigation into the reported leak of top-secret documents. Senator Cotton noted that the repeated leaks from the Biden-Harris administration raise questions about whether the administration will adequately address this security breach.

In part, Senator Cotton wrote:

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris - Wikimedia Commons Image

“Officials in your administration have repeatedly leaked information clearly designed to pressure Israel to curb its righteous campaign against Iran and its terrorist proxies over the last year. These leaks have ranged from reports of personal conversations between American and Israeli officials to assessments of Iranian intent and are clearly designed to handcuff Israel.”

Full text of the letter may be found here and below.

October 22, 2024

President Joseph R. Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500       

I write to express my deep alarm about the reported leak of top-secret American documents regarding Israel’s planned military response against Iran. This leak is an outrageous betrayal of an ally and a breach of trust that will undermine our relationship with partners for years to come.

Officials in your administration have repeatedly leaked information clearly designed to pressure Israel to curb its righteous campaign against Iran and its terrorist proxies over the last year. These leaks have ranged from reports of personal conversations between American and Israeli officials to assessments of Iranian intent and are clearly designed to handcuff Israel.

To cite a few examples:

• CNN recently cited unnamed U.S. officials claiming Israel’s has finalized a counterstrike plan to hit Iran before the U.S. election and provided details about that plan.

• You publicly discussed the timing of Israel’s retaliation again Iran for their latest attack saying on October 3 that it would not “happen today.”

• The Washington Post quoted an unnamed U.S. official about Israel’s plans for the ground invasion of Lebanon before the IDF launched the operation.

In each instance, these leaks are providing aid to Israel’s—and America’s— enemy about likely Israeli attack plans and limiting Israeli freedom of action.

Given this track record I am deeply concerned as to whether your administration will adequately address this serious security breach. Therefore, I request that you provide regular biweekly updates about the investigation to the Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.  

Sincerely,

Tom Cotton
United States Senator                     

Cotton to Mayorkas: American people have a right to know who is crossing southern border

U.S. Senator Tom Cotton

Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today wrote a letter to Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas expressing his concern over the refusal to disclose the nationality of individuals on the FBI’s terror watchlist who illegally crossed the southern U.S. border. Senator Cotton questioned the justification of protecting the “personal privacy” of suspected illegal alien terrorists and suggested that the decision to withhold information is a politically motivated attempt to hide evidence of the Biden-Harris border crisis.  

 Full text of the letter may be found here and below.

September 5, 2024

The Honorable Alejandro Mayorkas 

Secretary, Department of Homeland Security 

Washington, D.C. 20528 

Dear Secretary Mayorkas,

I write about troubling reports that the Department of Homeland Security is refusing to disclose the nationalities of FBI terror watchlist suspects who illegally crossed the southern border. 

In October 2023, Fox News filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking disclosure of the nationalities of FBI terror watchlist suspects who unlawfully crossed the southern border. A letter denying Fox News’ request stated that your agency is “committed to protecting the identity of individuals” on the terror watchlist, and that the request was an “invasion of personal privacy.” Your agency asserted that the “privacy interests” of illegal-alien terrorists “far outweigh whatever public interest, if any, exists in having their information released.”

Your letter also dubiously claimed that terrorist organizations could exploit nationality information by “infer[ring] a large percentage of its operatives from a particular nationality” raise fewer terrorism red flags. Of course, if the Biden-Harris administration impartially enforced our laws and deported illegal aliens regardless of their origin, terrorists wouldn’t be able to game the system in the manner you describe.

I suspect that the real reason you’re unlawfully withholding this information about terror suspects’ nationalities isn’t due to privacy or security concerns, but rather partisan concerns that it would alarm the American people. Once again, you’re attempting to hide evidence of the Biden-Harris administration’s border crisis.

But the American people have a right to know who is crossing our border, especially when those illegal aliens have ties to terrorism. And that right, contrary to your bizarre assertion, “far outweighs” the privacy rights of illegal aliens suspected of terrorism. Honestly, I can’t believe I even have to write that sentence.

Congress has an oversight interest in this information as well. Therefore, please provide my office with the information sought in the Freedom of Information Act request made by Fox News no later than September 10.

Sincerely,

____________________

Tom Cotton

United States Senator

Seven-Ag coalition secures temporary restraining order against Biden-Harris Administration's latest attempt to unlawfully cancel student loans

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement after the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia granted a request by a seven-state coalition of attorneys general for a temporary restraining order against the U.S. Department of Education’s latest unlawful attempt to cancel student loans:

“The Biden-Harris administration keeps trying to go around Congress, and they keep losing. This is the third attempt this administration has made to unilaterally erase student debt on the backs of taxpayers who either paid back their student loans or never took one out.

“I am proud to stand with my colleagues from Missouri, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, North Dakota and Ohio to stop the election-year theatrics of the Biden-Harris administration and remind the administration once again that only Congress has the authority to change the law. I look forward to continuing this fight in court.”

The temporary restraining order was granted after the court found that “Plaintiffs have obtained documents revealing the Secretary [of Education] is implementing this forgiveness plan … without publication and has been set on doing so since May.”

The court scheduled a hearing in the case for Wednesday, September 18.

To read a copy of the court’s order, click here.

For a printer-friendly version of this release, click here.

Boozman: Biden-Harris Administration is Failing Farmers and Rural America on Trade

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, issued the following statement after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its latest outlook projecting a record negative agriculture trade deficit for fiscal year 2025. 

“We have entered uncharted territory with the latest projected data on the U.S. agricultural trade deficit.

The Biden-Harris administration is failing our farmers, ranchers and foresters when it comes to maintaining our competitive advantage in the global marketplace.

The President and his team simply must do more to actively engage and aggressively advocate for our agriculture producers on the world stage. There is just no way around it.

Congress must also step up to the plate and pass a new farm bill that makes a robust investment in USDA’s trade promotion programs. The framework Senate Republicans released doubles funding for the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development Program, the farm bill’s premier trade promotion programs. This is an excellent place to start. Anything less is yet another a step in the wrong direction.” 

Background: The first USDA U.S. agricultural trade forecast for fiscal year (FY) 2025 reveals the agricultural trade deficit growing from a previous record of negative $30.5 billion in FY 2024 to a new record of negative $42.5 billion. U.S. agricultural exports in FY 2025 are projected at $169.5 billion, down $4 billion from FY 2024 and the lowest since FY 2020, while imports are projected to grow by $8 billion from FY 2024 to a record $212 billion.

Attorney General Griffin applauds success in suit he co-led after court blocks unlawful student loan forgiveness program

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today issued the following statement after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Biden-Harris administration’s unlawful student loan forgiveness program:

“The Eighth Circuit has once again blocked the Biden-Harris administration from implementing a blatantly illegal program that sought to erase student loans with no regard for the cost to taxpayers. The Biden-Harris administration is now 0-3 in its attempts to bypass Congress’s authority and unlawfully forgive student debt to score political points with the electorate.

“If the Biden-Harris administration continues to thwart the Constitution, I will continue to sue them and ensure that hardworking Americans aren’t stuck with the bill for loans that aren’t theirs.”

Griffin co-led the lawsuit challenging the unlawful program with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. They were joined in the suit by the attorneys general of Florida, Georgia, North Dakota, Ohio, and Oklahoma. The per curiam order applies nationwide.

To read a copy of the court’s ruling, click here.

To download a PDF copy of this release, click here.

Representatives Hill, Turner, Green press for answers on terror watchlist individuals crossing our southern border

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. French Hill (R-AR), House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH), and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) released the following statement after the House Judiciary Committee released a report that showed nearly 100 individuals on the terror watchlist were released into the United States after crossing our southern border.

“It’s unacceptable that the Biden-Harris Administration has left our southern border open and that they don’t know who is coming into our country or where they are once here – including potential terrorists.

“We recently sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to look into the process of identifying which terrorist watchlist individuals are trying to come into our country and where they are once released. The FBI and DHS have yet to answer these most basic questions.

“Since the Biden-Harris Administration’s failed open border policies have welcomed potential terrorists into our nation, we’re working to combat these threats and safeguard Americans in their own backyards. The FBI and DHS must answer our requests.”

U.S. Congressman French Hill

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH)

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN)

Further Background:

Rep. Hill, Chairman Turner, and Chairman Green sent the following letter to the GAO on April 30, 2024, to investigate the process of finding terror watchlist individuals entering the United States and identify where they are after they are released into our country. This letter was sent as a next step following the lawmakers’ prior efforts in pressing for answers because of the lack of responsiveness from FBI Director Christopher Wray and Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas. 

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin leads 14-state amicus in support of Texas suit against Biden-Harris overtime rule

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today issued the following statement after filing an amicus brief on behalf of himself and 13 other state attorneys general in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas supporting Texas’s motion for summary judgment in its suit against the U.S. Department of Labor and its rule regulating overtime pay for exempt employees:

“The rule is another example of the Biden-Harris administration trying to rewrite laws passed by Congress. The new rule drives up costs for private businesses and forces state governments to increase budgets—hitting Americans’ pocketbooks twice.

“Texas has already secured a preliminary injunction stopping this rule, and I am proud to lead this coalition of states in supporting our neighbor asking to vacate this latest effort by the Biden-Harris administration to go around Congress in an election-year giveaway.”

Federal law exempts workers with “executive, administrative, and professional” duties from receiving overtime pay. For decades, the Labor Department has used salary as one factor in deciding when that applies. The new rule requires employers to provide overtime pay to salaried professional, administrative, and executive employees who are already highly paid and were previously exempt from overtime requirements by conditioning overtime exemptions primarily on workers’ pay rather than their duties.

Griffin is joined in the amicus brief by the attorneys general of Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia.

To read the brief, click here.

For a printer-friendly version of this release, click here.