Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is leading a group of 18 Democratic lawmakers accusing Attorney General Pam Bondi of “corruption” for her department’s approval of the merger of Compass Inc. with Anywhere Real Estate.
In a letter to Bondi, Warren and her Capitol Hill colleagues cited a Wall Street Journal report that claimed a review of the transaction by Gail Slater, the head of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) antitrust division, was overruled by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who approved the merger.
“This decision raises questions about corruption under your watch and its impact on housing affordability for American families,” said the letter to Bondi. “Allowing this merger will make it easier for these firms to exert greater control over the real estate market, limit consumer access and choice, and ultimately exacerbate the housing crisis that has put homeownership out of reach for millions of Americans.”
While the lawmakers offered no evidence of corruption by Bondi or anyone within her department, their letter noted Slater left the DOJ after being overruled.
“The fact pattern reported in the Compass-Anywhere deal is deeply disturbing, indicating that it may be another example of well-connected industries and lobbyists obtaining inside access to high-level Trump Administration DOJ officials, and using this access to pervert the antitrust process to obtain approval of anticompetitive mergers that will reduce competition and harm the public,” the letter said. “These developments raise serious questions about whether—under your watch—the Department’s merger review process has been corrupted, whether antitrust experts were afforded appropriate independence, whether well-resourced parties had an uneven ability to obtain high-level access outside normal channels, and whether parties agreed to anything in return.”
The lawmakers demanded that Bondi answer questions on the approval process of the Anywhere-Compass deal, setting a March 5 deadline.
Among the lawmakers signing the letter were Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Pramila Jayapal (D-CA), and Yasamin Ansari (D-WA).
Photo by Gage Skidmore / Flickr Creative Commons
