Ashcroft ordered MS settlement?

Michael Czeiszperger czei at webperformanceinc.com
Tue Mar 19 07:38:19 EST 2002


People have suspected something funny was going on with the MS 
settlement, and are looking for evidence that it was ordered from above. 
I thought it was very strange that the day that Sun announced their 
lawsuit, the Justice Dept. talked to the press giving their opinion that 
they "hadn't proved their case regarding Java" in the antitrust trial, 
despite that part of the original trial being upheld on appeal.

In any event, here's some nice hearsay from the Washington Post, 
complete with the usual official denials:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39205-2002Mar16.html

"U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft wanted to settle the Microsoft 
Corp. antitrust case to allow the government 'to focus on other things,' 
according to an e-mail [...] The e-mail went on to say that the Commerce 
Department told him the settlement deal 'would be a broad range market 
stimulus as well.'"

"Microsoft contributed $2.1 million during the 2000 election cycle, 60 
percent of that to Republican Party organizations. The company 
contributed $10,000 to Ashcroft's failed Senate campaign in Missouri in 
2000."




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