John Ashcroft

Erik Prince Sells Xe Services (formerly Blackwater), Rebranded as Academi with John Ashcroft on Board

| Importance: 8/10

Xe Services (formerly Blackwater) was acquired by a group of private investors and renamed Academi, with Erik Prince exiting the company he founded. The acquisition and rebranding represented the second major corporate transformation designed to distance the entity from Blackwater’s documented …

Erik Prince Xe Services Academi John Ashcroft Jack Quinn +2 more private-military corporate-impunity conflicts-of-interest reputation-laundering accountability-crisis
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Hospital Confrontation Over NSA Surveillance Program

| Importance: 9/10

Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andy Card went to George Washington Hospital ICU to pressure hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft to reauthorize the NSA surveillance program that the Department of Justice had deemed illegal. Acting Attorney General James Comey raced to the hospital with …

John Ashcroft James Comey Alberto Gonzales Andy Card Robert Mueller rule-of-law executive-power surveillance stellarwind constitutional-crisis +5 more
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Microsoft Antitrust Settlement Establishes Weak Precedent for Tech Monopolies

| Importance: 9/10

The U.S. Department of Justice reaches a settlement with Microsoft on November 1, 2001, abandoning the structural breakup remedy ordered by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in favor of behavioral restrictions. The Bush administration DOJ, after taking office in January 2001, announces on September 6, …

U.S. Department of Justice Microsoft Corporation George W. Bush John Ashcroft Bill Gates +1 more antitrust tech-monopoly regulatory-capture enforcement-failure corporate-power +2 more
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