<![CDATA[Congress wants Jeff Bezos to testify after ‘possibly criminal’ Amazon statements]]> https://usagag.com/2020/05/01/congress-wants-jeff-bezos-to-testify-after-possibly-criminal-amazon-statements/ Fri, 01 May 2020 19:27:54 +0000 hourly 1 https://usagag.com Congress wants Jeff Bezos to testify after ‘possibly criminal’ Amazon statements The House Judiciary Committee wants Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to testify about an allegation that his company uses third-party vendor information to guide creation of new Amazon products.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the internet retail giant has allegedly used information from third-party vendors to guide competing products. For example, Amazon introduced its own car trunk organizers after reviewing a vendor’s sales data, the Journal reported.

Based on that report, his prior company statements to Congress “appear to be misleading, and possibly criminally false or perjurious,” committee members wrote to Bezos.

Jeff Bezos

AFP via Getty Images

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler

AFP via Getty Images

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The invitation is not a subpoena, but the bipartisan request makes clear the committee could issue a binding demand.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) issued the letter, supported by fellow Democrats and three Republican committee members.

The top Republican on the Antitrust Subcommittee, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), signed the letter, as did Reps. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.

The Wall Street Journal reporting is problematic for Amazon in part because the company has denied such practices.

Amazon associate general counsel Nate Sutton told Congress in July, “We don’t use individual seller data directly to compete.”

Lying to Congress can be a crime. In a rare prosecution, Roger Stone, the flamboyant former adviser to President Trump, was convicted in November of lying to Congress about his attempts to contact WikiLeaks during the 2016 election.

Sometimes lying to Congress isn’t prosecuted. Obama administration intelligence chief James Clapper, for example, gave admittedly false testimony about domestic surveillance in 2013 and was not prosecuted.

A possible hearing with Bezos would give lawmakers a prime perch to hector the world’s richest man about a range of company policies — including Trump’s assertion that the US Postal Service charges Amazon too little to deliver its packages.

The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee is outspoken Trump-allied Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.

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