The DOJ moved to dismiss a fraud case against DISH Network Chairman Charlie Ergen, raising suspicions of politicization.
Ergen and his wife donated over $113,000 to Biden’s campaign after DISH received a $50 million federal grant.
Vermont Telephone, which filed the fraud claim against DISH nearly a decade ago, accused the DOJ of trying to protect Ergen from deposition by rushing dismissal.
“[I]t appears that the effect — if not the purpose — of the DOJ’s rush to seek dismissal of this case is to protect Mr. Ergen from being questioned under oath,” the company’s attorney stated.
The company noted Ergen’s large donations to Democrats.
Dismissing fraud cases is rare for the DOJ’s Civil Fraud division, which opposed interfering previously.
“We do not believe it is a coincidence that Mr. Ergen, his wife (who also is scheduled to be deposed next week), and DISH’s Political Action Committee collectively contributed in excess of $5 million to Democratic candidates and causes between 2008 and 2022,” the attorney said.
“With the upcoming election, this case looks like just the latest example of the DOJ’s two-tiered justice system under which the well-heeled, politically connected are treated one way, while everyone else is treated differently,” he said.
“As far as we are aware, relators have filed approximately 4,000 [similar] actions under the False Claims Act since 2018, and the DOJ moved for dismissal in approximately 65 of those cases, which is less than two percent,” the lawyer said.
“And in those cases where the DOJ has sought dismissal, it generally was because the case suffered from a fatal defect, which is not the case with Vermont Telephone’s claims against DISH,” he said.
However, the DOJ argued the case lacked evidence and pursuing it would be costly, while Vermont Telephone said DISH owes the government $3.3 billion and should be held accountable for distorting FCC auctions and wireless deployment.
The judge is deciding whether to dismiss the long-running case following the DOJ’s unusual intervention.
The Department of Justice stated that “the benefits to the Government of continued litigation are marginal given the lack of evidence and the difficulty in establishing damages. Conversely, the costs to the Government (and this Court) are high as a result of extraordinary discovery.”
“The Defendants short-changed the government $3.3 billion, an amount that remains unpaid to this day,” Vermont Telephone’s attorney said.
