Acting AG Appears to Have Misled FTC Over Actions at Miami Firm
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Greg Farrell, Andrew Martin and David Voreacos 1 hr ago
New documents released by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission suggest that acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker misled the agency’s investigators as he was stepping into his role last year as Justice Department chief of staff.
After several attempts to reach Whitaker about the Miami company where he was on the advisory board, the FTC investigator emailed his colleagues to relay that he finally reached Whitaker, who was willing to cooperate and asserted that he “never emailed or wrote to consumers” in his consulting role.
That statement to James Evans of the FTC appears to be inaccurate. Whitaker had written a letter in 2015 to a disgruntled customer who planned to report the company, World Patent Marketing, to the Better Business Bureau. In the letter, which was included in the FTC’s disclosure and reported previously by the news media, Whitaker threatened the customer, writing: “I am assuming you understand there could be serious civil and criminal consequences for you if that is in fact what you and your ‘group’ are doing.”
In the letter, Whitaker noted that he was a former U.S. attorney in Iowa and that he was aware that the customer had complained to the company’s chief executive officer, Scott Cooper, in the past. “I am familiar with your background and your history with Scott,” Whitaker wrote. “Understand that we take threats like this quite seriously.”
President Donald Trump appointed Whitaker acting attorney general after asking Jeff Sessions to step down. That appointment, outside the usual chain of succession, is now being challenged in several court cases.
The documents, produced Friday in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, contain internal correspondence among FTC investigators, who expressed frustration at being unable to reach Whitaker at several points during 2017.
At the time, the agency was investigating complaints about World Patent Marketing, which it described as an “invention promotion scheme” that it accused of “bilking millions of dollars from consumers.”
The emails also convey FTC investigators’ shock in October 2017 when — in the latter stages of their investigation — Whitaker was suddenly named chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Evans, who works for the agency’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, wrote on Oct. 24, 2017. “Matt Whitaker is now chief of staff to the Attorney General. Of the United States.”
The FTC declined to comment. The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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How stupid does a person have to be to accept a position in which they will be investigated and their shenanigans exposed.
He is so arrogant that he thought this would not be looked into because Trump would protect him. They are convinced that they are above the law.
I agree. They believe they can get away with anything because Trump's base simply looks the other way or makes excuses for them.
Now we're the bad guys because we're demanding accountability and that our government officials adhere to established ethic rules.
What happened to Orange Julius Caesar's claim of to "I'll drain the swamp"?
I only hire the best...Donald J. Trump....LOL
Only the best felons.............