The five most eye-opening lines in the Amazon lawsuit

A heavily redacted, 172-page lawsuit reveals how Amazon allegedly orchestrated a long-running campaign to muscle out competitors from the online retail space by financially squeezing merchants who rely on its platform.

It’s a landmark case that will cement the legacy of FTC Chair Lina Khan, who first gained public attention going after Amazon. It’s also a key pillar in the Biden administration’s push to curb the alleged monopoly power of the nation’s largest tech companies.

“There is immediate harm that is ongoing here,” Khan said Tuesday. “Sellers are paying one of every two dollars to Amazon. Shoppers are paying higher prices as a result not just on Amazon but across the internet.”

Amazon, though, said a win for the Biden administration will hurt competition, and reduce the options for small businesses to market their products online.

Here are five of the toughest things the FTC says about Amazon in the suit:

1: The government accused Amazon executives of obstructing its investigation, claiming they used encrypted apps like Signal to communicate: “Plaintiffs bring this lawsuit despite Amazon's extensive efforts to impede the government's investigation and hide information about its internal operations.”

2. Amazon allegedly uses a price-surveillance team to crawl the internet to ensure vendors are not selling items at lower prices elsewhere: “Amazon understands the importance of maintaining the perception among shoppers that it has the lowest prices. But in reality, Amazon relentlessly stifles actual price competition by punishing sellers who offer lower prices anywhere other than Amazon and disciplining rivals that undercut Amazon’s prices.”

3. Amazon executives wanted to eliminate a popular program that allowed sellers to ship Prime items through other companies: “Amazon’s fear of a world in which unrestricted seller choice leads to increased competition is grounded in experience. For a period of time, Amazon temporarily allowed sellers to use their own fulfillment solution for Prime-eligible orders. When Amazon realized it had lowered a barrier to competition, it quickly reversed course.”

4. With no competitors to threaten it, Amazon has hammered vendors with fees: “Amazon has hiked so steeply the fees it charges sellers that it now reportedly takes close to half of every dollar from the typical seller that uses Amazon's fulfillment service. Amazon recognizes that sellers find ‘that it has become more difficult over time to be profitable on Amazon’ … But as one seller explains, ‘we have nowhere else to go and Amazon knows it.’”

5. Amazon is using a pay-to-play scheme for placing its ads that customers don’t like: “Most sellers must now pay for advertising to reach Amazon's massive base of online shoppers, while shoppers consequently face less relevant search results and are steered toward more expensive products … In a competitive world, Amazon's decision to raise prices and degrade services would create an opening for rivals and potential rivals to attract business, gain momentum, and grow. But Amazon has engaged in an unlawful monopolistic strategy to close off that possibility.”

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Canada’s speaker resigns after inviting man who fought in Nazi unit to Zelenskyy visit

OTTAWA, Ont. — The Speaker of Canada’s House of Commons resigned on Tuesday after quick and fierce backlash for honoring a man who fought in a Nazi division during World War II.

Anthony Rota made a sudden but not unexpected announcement to the House of Commons to express “profound regret” and said he would step down as speaker by end of day Wednesday.

“That public recognition has caused pain to individuals and communities, including the Jewish community in Canada and around the world, in addition to survivors of Nazi atrocities in Poland, among other nations,” he said.

Canadian lawmakers gave a standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka, 98, after Rota recognized him as a “hero” following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s historic speech in Parliament on Friday — a moment that produced some of the best visuals from Zelenskyy’s visit.

But the story took a twisted turn and burst into global headlines over the weekend when it came out that Hunka was part of the First Ukrainian Division, also known as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS under the Nazis.

“This was an embarrassment to Canadians and was completely unacceptable,” Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said Tuesday before meeting with Cabinet.

Some opposition parties began to make calls for Rota’s resignation early Monday, when NDP House Leader Peter Julian said Rota broke a “sacred trust” with lawmakers.

But the issue only came to a head on Tuesday, when representatives of each party met with Rota. He remained in the speaker’s chair and presided over House of Commons proceedings Monday after apologizing despite much of the debate focusing on him.

Liberal House Leader Karina Gould said Rota invited and recognized Hunka “without informing either the government or the Ukrainian delegation or any parliamentarian that he was going to do this.”

Rota apologized on Monday after he became aware of Hunka’s Nazi past, although his comments have been brief and he has not taken questions from the media.

“I am deeply sorry that I have offended many with my gesture and remarks,” he said in Parliament.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called it “deeply embarrassing” for Canada, but he has not apologized following calls from opposition parties.

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre posted on social media that Trudeau and Rota have “brought shame on Canada” but Rota’s resignation does not excuse “Trudeau’s failure to have his massive diplomatic and intelligence apparatus vet and prevent honoring a Nazi.”

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller was asked about the bizarre incident at his daily briefing in Washington and said “The Canadian government said they were not aware of that individual's past and expressed regret for it, and that seems like the appropriate step.”

In Ottawa, some of Rota’s colleagues stepped forward to defend his character.

“I was elected with Anthony in 2004,” said Health Minister Mark Holland. “He’s a profoundly good man.”

Citizens' Services Minister Terry Beech described it a “regrettable mistake” and said “nobody has been harder on Anthony Rota than Anthony Rota.”

The Liberals tried to strike the comments and recordings of Hunka’s recognition from the House of Commons record on Monday but the other parties opposed the move.

“It was an ugly reminder of what survivors of the Holocaust know too well: that we must never forget,” said Conservative MP Marty Morantz. “Deleting the text of the speaker's words from [the official record] would have only one purpose: to try to forget what happened and wash the record clean.”

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Another name surfaces as potential Menendez successor: New Jersey's first lady

As First Lady of New Jersey, Tammy Murphy has had a much more hands-on role than her predecessors, taking on a policy portfolio, occupying an office in Trenton and becoming her husband’s lead fundraiser.

Now, she’s talking to Democrats about potentially running for elective office — the Senate seat occupied by newly indicted Sen. Bob Menendez, according to three Democrats with knowledge of her discussions about it.

Murphy’s name has been floated for elective office before. But this appears to be the first time that she’s taking the prospect seriously.

At the same time, Democrats are aware that Murphy going for the seat — whether by appointment from her husband should Menendez resign, or running for it in a primary election next year — would be an ironic twist in the Menendez saga.

The senator, who’s accused of doing official favors for businesspeople, a developer and the Egyptian government in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of cash and gold bars, last year helped elevate his political neophyte son, Rob Menendez, to the House.

Menendez has pledged not to resign, though he hasn't said whether he still plans to seek reelection. If Menendez were to resign, Gov. Phil Murphy would be able to unilaterally appoint his successor for the remainder of the term, which expires in January 2025.

The Democratic insiders familiar with the discussions, who were granted anonymity while discussing internal deliberations amid a quickly-shifting political landscape, cautioned that Tammy Murphy is not close to making a decision on whether to run.

But they said that the talk has intensified because Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) has suggested in conversations with Democrats that she’s unlikely to pursue Menendez’s Senate seat and focus on running for governor in 2025. That could create an opening for Tammy Murphy — a well-known presence in the state and one of its top Democratic fundraisers — to run to become the first woman to represent New Jersey in the upper house. If she were to run, she'd likely face Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who announced Saturday he'll seek the Senate seat, and possibly others.

New Jersey Globe first reported that Tammy Murphy was fielding phone calls about running.

A spokesperson for Gov. Phil Murphy’s office declined to comment. A spokesperson for Sherrill did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Though she’s never run for office, Tammy Murphy has developed a policy portfolio during her husband’s time as governor. She has spearheaded a major effort to reduce New Jersey’s infant mortality rate.

A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll from February found that Tammy Murphy had the highest name recognition of 10 ambitious politicians the survey asked voters about, at 73 percent, though a 43 percent plurality didn’t know enough about her to form a favorable or unfavorable opinion.

Murphy, a Goldman Sachs alum like her husband, is a former Republican who said she left the party over environmental issues and abortion rights.

“No one doubts she’s a formidable candidate. She’d be able to fundraise. She’s had issues she’s led on for years. She can connect with communities,” said one of the Democrats.

But Tammy Murphy has potential political liabilities as well. With Phil Murphy she co-owns a soccer team that early in Murphy’s first came under fire for poor living and practice conditions for its players, and was later named as one of several teams that was named in an alleged immigration scheme. A State Trooper lawsuit also alleges that she denied a member of the governor’s security detail the family’s carriage house to pump breast milk during breaks.

Phil Murphy said he couldn’t address that allegation directly because it’s ongoing litigation, but added “anybody who knows my wife, knows her values, knows what she believes in and stands for, would just hear what’s been said, alleged, and, I don’t know what the reaction is, they would probably find it outrageous — that would be a word I’d use — and completely untrue.”

Alex Wilkes, communications director for the New Jersey Republican State Committee, said criticism of Tammy Murphy is fair game. “She’s not a first lady who’s a little bit more ceremonial. She’s been brought into the fold in a lot of ways, on the business side and on the political side.”

Wilkes also hit on the nepotism angle to a potential Tammy Murphy Senate run.

“’It just feels like these things that belong to ‘we the people’ are these commodities to be traded among self-serving politicians,” she said.

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Hunter Biden in GOP’s crosshairs again as tax panel sets vote on disclosing more secrets

The House Ways and Means Committee is preparing to release more sensitive information about its investigation into Hunter Biden.

Republicans on the panel have told colleagues they will meet Wednesday to vote on whether to disclose information otherwise protected by strict taxpayer secrecy laws. It has to do with Republicans’ conversations with IRS whistleblowers, but the exact nature of the information is unknown.

The committee previously released similarly protected information about Biden in June.

The move comes as the president's son has filed suit against the IRS, saying the agency has failed to protect his private tax information.

Republicans’ notice to colleagues makes clear the information is safeguarded by a section of the tax law that imposes tough penalties including jail terms for unauthorized disclosure. Lawmakers can get around those restrictions by voting in private to make it public, as they previously did with former President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

In the meantime, the notice says, lawmakers can view the information on Monday and Tuesday in private.

Federal prosecutors said in August that they plan to charge Hunter Biden with tax crimes in California or Washington, D.C., after a plea deal fell through.

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Student loan payments resume Oct. 1. Here’s what you need to know.

Tens of millions of Americans are gearing up to make student loan payments in the coming weeks for the first time in years as a pandemic-era reprieve finally comes to an end.

Payments have already begun pouring into the Education Department as some borrowers begin to repay. But the major test for the federal student loan system — and the Biden administration — lies ahead when official due dates arrive in October.

Individual borrowers face a series of decisions about how to repay: whether they should enroll in the Biden administration’s income-driven repayment program or avail themselves of a new, temporary forbearance option that postpones payments but drives up interest costs.

At the same time, a prolonged government shutdown could complicate the Education Department’s ability to manage the student loan program just as payments are resuming. And millions of Americans are still waiting to see how Biden’s do-over on mass student debt cancellation shakes out.

Here’s our quick guide to some of the moving pieces:

When will student loan debt payments resume?

After more than three years of a pandemic pause, tens of millions of Americans will be required to make a payment on their federal student loans at some point in October — but there will be fewer repercussions than usual if they don’t.

The exact date depends on when during the month a borrower’s individual due date falls. But interest accrual on the loans — which had been kept at 0 percent since March 2020 — began on Sept. 1.

The Biden administration has initiated a safety net program for borrowers who have trouble paying. The Education Department won’t report borrowers who fail to make their monthly payments as delinquent to credit bureaus. But interest will continue accruing on their loans during that forbearance period. The department says that flexibility will extend until October 2024.

What happens with student loan bills if the federal government shuts down?

Federal student loan borrowers will still owe payments — and they’ll continue to be charged interest — even if the federal government shuts down. Even if the government isn’t fully funded, borrowers’ payment obligations remain the same. That’s been the case during previous shutdowns.

But the amount or quality of customer service that borrowers receive from the government could be in jeopardy during a government shutdown.

The Education Department relies on Congress to appropriate money each year to pay loan servicing companies — such as Nelnet, MOHELA and Aidvantage — to manage borrowers’ payments.

Some of that funding is spread across multiple years, giving the agency some leeway to continue normal loan servicing operations for some amount of time. Whether borrowers experience any disruptions would likely depend on the length of the shutdown.

But it’s worth noting that the Education Department has less runway now than it did during previous shutdowns. The department is already dealing with a tight budget on loan servicing that earlier this year forced it to curtail call center hours and allow for higher hold times.

The Biden administration is promoting an optional income-driven repayment program called SAVE. How can people qualify?

The SAVE Plan, which allows most borrowers to have lower monthly payments and caps the interest they have to pay in some cases, rolled out earlier this summer.

Any borrower with a direct federal student loan — except parent borrowers or those who are in default on their debt — qualify for the program. Borrowers can sign up directly at StudentAid.gov or with their loan servicer.

The Education Department says that more than four million borrowers are already enrolled in the program. That consists mostly of borrowers who were converted from a previous iteration of the income-driven repayment plan. The department has said that about 1 million of the borrowers were new sign-ups to the program in recent weeks.

What are the odds Republicans in Congress will succeed in blocking Biden’s newest repayment program?

While the Biden administration has promoted the program as the most generous repayment option in history, Republican lawmakers have blasted the cost to taxpayers of reducing borrowers’ monthly payments and providing new interest subsidies.

Republicans have seized on the program’s $156 billion price tag over a decade, which the Congressional Budget Office and outside experts have said is likely to be significantly higher than that. GOP lawmakers have also argued that the program will provide unnecessary benefits to borrowers at taxpayer expense and potentially incentivize some colleges to raise prices further.

House Republicans have advanced legislation to nullify Biden’s SAVE plan that’s expected to come up for a floor vote in the coming weeks. And there’s a similar effort underway in the Senate.

Republicans are seeking to nullify the repayment plan under the Congressional Review Act, a tool that allows lawmakers to swiftly overturn recently enacted executive branch policies. It will allow Republicans to force a vote on the measure in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

A similar GOP-led effort to repeal Biden’s student debt relief program earlier this year, before the Supreme Court struck it down, passed Congress with a handful of Democratic votes. But Biden swiftly vetoed the measure and there wasn’t enough support to override the veto.

Even if some moderate Democrats again side with Republicans to block the SAVE plan, Biden is sure to once again issue a veto to protect a key student loan priority of his administration.

What is Biden doing to wipe away large swaths of student debt?

The Biden administration has launched a regulatory process to create a new mass debt cancellation program after the Supreme Court struck down its first attempt earlier this year. The Education Department plans to convene public rulemaking sessions this fall where a federal advisory committee will debate potential policy options. Those rulemaking sessions could be delayed in a protracted government shutdown.

At the same time, the Biden administration is also continuing to announce different batches of loan forgiveness that’s targeted at populations of borrowers. Just this last week, the Education Department announced $37 million of loan forgiveness for former students who it determined were misled by the University of Phoenix, one of the nation’s largest for-profit schools.

That’s on top of tens of billions of dollars’ worth of debt relief that it’s previously announced for students who attended other for-profit schools, public service workers and borrowers who have severe disabilities.

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Biden's Michigan trip to join workers on strike has nothing to do with Trump, White House says

President Joe Biden’s decision to join the picket line with UAW workers has nothing to do with Donald Trump, the White House said Monday.

"Absolutely not. This is a decision to visit the picket line and it was based off his own desire. This is what the president wanted to do, to stand with auto workers,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a press briefing when asked if Biden’s decision to go to Michigan was influenced by Trump’s own plans to visit.

Biden announced last week that he will travel to Michigan on Tuesday to join the picket line of auto workers on strike nationwide, just as some Democrats began to question his response to the strike.

On late Friday and on Monday morning, Trump posted to his social media platform Truth Social that Biden was only visiting Michigan because Trump had already announced his intention to visit on Wednesday — the same day as the second Republican primary debate.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made the rounds on several Sunday shows this week to defend Biden’s decision to go to Michigan.

“President Biden is doing what he has always done, which is to stand with American workers,” Buttigieg said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He is proud of being the most pro-union, pro-worker president, not only compared to the Trump administration, with its anti-union policies, but really compared to any modern president.”

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Newsom and DeSantis to debate in November

Following months of taunting challenges between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over a head-to-head debate, a date has officially been set.

The two governors will debate in-person on Nov. 30 in Georgia, the network said Monday. Fox News anchor Sean Hannity will moderate, as the 90-minute-long show will air during the 9 p.m. ET time slot of his show, “Hannity.”

“We’ve agreed to the debate — provided there is no cheering section, no hype videos or any of the other crutches DeSantis requested. We want a real debate — not a circus,” Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click told POLITICO.

A Fox News spokesperson on Monday declined to say whether Hannity agreed to Newsom’s terms of no live audience and said that more details on the debate will be available later on.

The debate comes a month after the Florida Republican and California Democrat agreed to participate in a debate hosted by Fox News after repeated, pointed sparring over policies in each other’s states.

Hannity first raised the idea of a debate with Newsom during an interview in June, following which DeSantis signed on to participate.

“I’m looking forward to providing viewers with an informative debate about the everyday issues and governing philosophies that impact the lives of every American,” Hannity said in a statement.

DeSantis has mocked Newsom’s handling of homelessness and quality-of-life crimes and ridiculed California for overdoing its stricter approach to the pandemic, while Newsom has taunted DeSantis over his ability to beat former President Donald Trump in the Republican primary.

The debate could raise the national profile of Newsom and DeSantis, who is currently a GOP presidential candidate. Newsom has opted out of a 2024 run for president.

Christopher Cadelago contributed to this report.

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