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Senators defend Microsoft
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July 15, 1998: 7:16 a.m. ET
Accuse DOJ of encouraging other governments to take antitrust action
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WASHINGTON (CNN ) -- Three Republican senators have accused the Justice Department of encouraging other governments to take antitrust action against Microsoft, a charge the Justice Department denies.
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Sen. Spencer Abraham of Michigan and Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona sent a six-page letter to Attorney General Janet Reno Tuesday, charging that the Justice Department's antitrust division was "lending support to efforts by foreign governments to use their antitrust laws against Microsoft."
In May, the Justice Department and 20 states filed a broad antitrust suit against Microsoft for allegedly using its monopoly in personal computer operating systems to destroy competition in other markets.
The Justice Department said the charges made by the three senators are completely false.
"The charge that the department has divulged information to foreign governments or encouraged foreign governments to take legal action is completely false," Justice Department spokesman Michael Gordon told CNNfn.
"Our contacts with foreign officials has been extremely limited. On a small number of occasions, foreign officials contacted us to inquire about the investigation or the matter has come up in normal consultations. In every instance, we've maintained the confidentiality of our investigation, and in no instance did we encourage foreign governments to initiate or threaten legal proceedings."
A Republican staffer for a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee said the three senators intend to press Reno on this issue when she appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee in an oversight hearing Wednesday morning.
The three Republican senators acknowledged that cooperation among global antitrust enforcement authorities is an important part of achieving legitimate U.S. antitrust objectives, but they said they have seen no signs that the department's activities abroad further such goals.
Instead, the senators' claim that the department's practices with overseas governments are designed to re-litigate issues that the antitrust division has either lost or anticipates losing before the U.S. courts over whether Microsoft's conduct benefits customers.
"That does not appear to us to be a legitimate activity for the antitrust division to be pursuing abroad," the senators wrote. "We do not think it is acceptable for the Department of Justice to encourage legal actions, or even threats of legal actions, by foreign countries to pressure an American company to enter into a settlement in a United States legal action."
The senators asked Reno to explain all contacts Justice Department officials have had with other governments regarding Microsoft, to describe any information, documentation and notes exchanged, and the total time and expenditures devoted to contacts with international governments in this regard.
Citing a few examples, the letter asserts that after a visit from Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein, the Japanese Fair Trade Commission launched an unusual and unfair raid on Microsoft in an investigation, which the senators said appears to protect a Japanese publisher of word-processing software from the competition posed by Microsoft's Japanese version of its Word software.
In Brazil, a Justice Department official spoke publicly about the department's action against Microsoft before senior government officials, accusing Microsoft of behaving "like an arrogant monopolist," the letter said.
The senators wrote Reno that it's hard to see how these kinds of critical comments by a U.S. government official in any way serves the best interests of U.S. consumers or the U.S. economy.
The letter reminds Reno that "regardless of the conclusions that the department has reached concerning Microsoft's conduct, as of yet no court has found that Microsoft has violated the antitrust laws; to the contrary, the recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has raised serious questions about the validity of the department's antitrust suit against Microsoft."
The senators said a consequence of the filing of the suit has been to impede Microsoft's ability to export its software products abroad. And in some cases they tell Reno that the uncertainty of the suit has resulted in a potential loss of overseas customers. 
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