A lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission has walked back his comments about a lack of resources and staff turnover interfering with the agency’s preparations for a trial involving Amazon’s Prime program.
FTC lawyer Jonathan Cohen asked a federal judge during a hearing on Wednesday to delay the September trial and relax deadlines in the case, citing budgetary and staffing shortfalls.
But Cohen did an about-face later in the day, telling U.S. District Judge John Chun in a brief letter that the statements he made in court were incorrect.
“I want to clarify comments I made today: I was wrong,” Cohen wrote in the letter. “The commission does not have resource constraints and we are fully prepared to litigate this case.”
In a statement sent to The Associated Press on Thursday, FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson also said “the attorney was wrong.”
“I have made it clear since Day 1 that we will commit the resources necessary for this case,” Ferguson said, adding that the FTC “will never back down from taking on Big Tech.”
An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the agency’s reversal.
Cohen made his original comments while seeking to postpone a trial stemming from a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit that accused Amazon of enrolling consumers in its Prime program without their consent and making it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions.
With the request coming amid the cost-cutting efforts driven by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the judge asked if budget and staff reductions at federal agencies had affected the FTC's readiness.
Cohen said some employees chose to leave the FTC following the “Fork in the road” email sent by the administration in January. Staff members who resigned for other reasons also have not been replaced due to a government hiring freeze, he said.
He also cited restrictive rules on purchasing court documents and travel.
Haleluya Hadero, The Associated Press
