Can you guess what names do not appear in this article? Neither Barack Obama nor Loretta Lynch. Had this ocurred fully under a Republican President, the Blamestorming would have been epic. In fact, they almost make it seem as if it was Trump’s DOJ which settled this case, instead of prosecuting it, early on
‘We feel like our system was hijacked’: DEA agents say a huge opioid case ended in a whimper
After two years of painstaking investigation, David Schiller and the rest of the Drug Enforcement Administration team he supervised were ready to move on the biggest opioid distribution case in U.S. history.
The team, based out of the DEA’s Denver field division, had been examining the operations of the nation’s largest drug company, McKesson Corp. By 2014, investigators said they could show that the company had failed to report suspicious orders involving millions of highly addictive painkillers sent to drugstores from Sacramento, Calif., to Lakeland, Fla. Some of those went to corrupt pharmacies that supplied drug rings.
The investigators were ready to come down hard on the fifth-largest public corporation in America, according to a joint investigation by The Washington Post and “60 Minutes.†(WT: this article is well worth the read, which includes an interview with retired DEA Agent David Schiller)
The DEA team — nine field divisions working with 12 U.S. attorney’s offices across 11 states — wanted to revoke registrations to distribute controlled substances at some of McKesson’s 30 drug warehouses. Schiller and members of his team wanted to fine the company more than $1 billion. More than anything else, they wanted to bring the first-ever criminal case against a drug distribution company, maybe even walk an executive in handcuffs out of McKesson’s towering San Francisco headquarters to send a message to the rest of the industry.
“This is the best case we’ve ever had against a major distributor in the history of the Drug Enforcement Administration,†said Schiller, who recently retired as assistant special agent in charge of DEA’s Denver field division after a 30-year career with the agency. “I said, ‘How do we not go after the number one organization?’ â€
But it didn’t work out that way.
Instead, top attorneys at the DEA and the Justice Department struck a deal earlier this year with the corporation and its powerful lawyers, an agreement that was far more lenient than the field division wanted, according to interviews and internal government documents. Although the agents and investigators said they had plenty of evidence and wanted criminal charges, they were unable to convince the U.S. attorney in Denver that they had enough to bring a case.
It’s not till late into the article, when most people have already moved on, that we learn that this happened in January. And even then, the date is not announced.
In September 2015, McKesson and the government reached a tentative settlement. McKesson’s registrations would be suspended in Aurora for three years, in Washington Courthouse for two and in Livonia for two. The company would be barred from distributing for one year one type of narcotic, hydromorphone, from its Lakeland, Fla., warehouse.
There would be no criminal charges. No administrative case. No $1 billion fine.
The case took more than a year to come to a conclusion. In January, the Justice Department announced that it had finalized a deal with McKesson that included the $150 million fine and the four warehouse suspensions. The company also agreed to increase staffing and retain an independent monitor to assess its compliance.
In fact, the announcement was made on January 17th, days before Mr. Trump would take his oath of office. Yet, the Washington Post can’t even work up the outrage to castigate Mr. Obama nor Loretta Lynch. Can you imagine the outrage towards Trump and AG Jeff Sessions if this had happened in, say, August of this year?
Anyhow, both articles are rather disturbing. The DEA agents did their jobs, in what should have been a slam dunk case. The DOJ and high mucky muck levels of the DEA wanted to negotiate with McKesson, rather than prosecute, and even verbally assaulted the DEA agents involved in the investigation, taking them to task. McKesson had already been fined in 2008 for doing shady things with hydrocodone. And from the 60 Minutes article we learn
Bill Whitaker: One of the Former D.E.A. Administrators said that the McKesson Corporation has fueled the explosive prescription drug abuse problem in this country. Do you agree with that?
David Schiller: 100%. If they woulda stayed in compliance with their authority and held those that they’re supplying the pills to, the epidemic would be nowhere near where it is right now. Nowhere near.
Obama told us about this opioid epidemic, and here his DOJ and top levels of DEA let McKesson off the hook with a big slap on the wrist. A $150 million slap on the wrist, but, no one went to jail. The company is still operating.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
Just another $150 million added to the Obama slush fund.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/14017/report-obama-admin-funneled-billions-left-wing-amanda-prestigiacomo
I was watching a youtube rerun of MSNBC and this lady was railing about a poll done that conservatives get their news from FOX and no where else. but that Liberals get their news from multiple sources so that makes them wiser and smarter.
I had to roll my eyes until the Rightie they had on the panel asked the woman who conservatives should get their news from beside fox? When you tune into MSNBC or CNN or any of the networks or read the papers they are all telling us that we as conservatives are:
Racists
Bigots,
Homophobes
Mysoginists
White nationalists
KKK
extreme fringe
That we hate:
Muslims, Mexicans, blacks and that we only want guns so we can mow down blacks by the billions.
Just imagine if you will a world in which all of the MSM was conservative and there was only MSNBC telling the leftist view point and this poll was conducted.
It is no doubt that every lefty would be getting their news from one source. And as we all know herein lies the problem with the MSM. They are so biased and so heavily infiltrated by socialists now that they are unable to provide unbiased reporting.
My wife insists on watching CBS news and 60 minutes. She knows its biased and even she who is not very political says she cant believe how biased they are in their reporting.
A case in point.
Scott Pelly of CBS on 60 minutes last night had a piece telling us at the very beginning that Terrorism is now being called Radical Islamic Terrorism but that in america more people are killed by WHITE NATIONALISTS than Radical Islamic Terrorists.
He then goes on to interview an ex white nationalist who describes his hate filled life but that somehow he saw the light(Good for him of course they all need to see the light and not hate anything or anyone for hates sake)and how the entire problem with America is White People represented by 1/10th of 1 percent.
Around the world just in 2017 there have been over 1200 killed by ISIS radicals alone. This does not include the 3860 killed by all other affiliated Radical Islamic terrorists of other groups. This according to a piece I read in the NY Times. In that same time frame there has been ONE verified White nationalist murder. The woman that was killed by the guy with the car, who no doubt wanted to kill more than one.
The slant of the piece was incredibly biased and misleading. Its like White Nationalism is the bane of society and these other fellahs are just minor annoyances to be dealt with.
But we are supposed to get our news from CBS who puts this kind of garbage out there for us to digest and make informed decisions on how the world is just okay except for those evil bastards in America called White People.
I hate the KKK and White Supremicists and White Nationalists. I am a nationalist who believes in America first and America Exceptionalism as we spend billions upon billions of our money around the world helping anyone and everyone with a hand out. But I am not a White Nationalist as defined by the left.
But we should get our news from CBS, Or MSNBC or CNN because of course we all know only they have the truth.
Fargo,
I watched the 60 Minutes piece and agree they “oversold” their “evidence” comparing Islamic terrorism to white nationalist terrorism. While American white nationalists have conducted more terrorist attacks in the US since 9/11, Islamic terrorists have killed more innocents. Let’s all admit that the data are difficult to analyze and reach a conclusion.
Home grown Islamic terrorists AND home grown white nationalist terrorists are problems in the US of A. We should keep our eyes on both.
60 Minutes interviewed former white nationalist (and admittedly violent) Christian Picciolini who described himself as lost and alone as a youngster, and that the brotherhood and hatred found in the white supremacy movement filled a void. He has previously described that becoming a father caused him to re-evaluate his live and he left the movement. He now counsels other “lost” and “alone” young white supremacists.
“While American white nationalists have conducted more terrorist attacks in the US since 9/11”
100% bullshit from the abuser, time to get to your porn
Deserttrash,
You are wrong, as always. Since 9/11 white nationalist extremists have conducted more terrorist attacks in the US than have Islamic extremists.
We understand why you don’t believe it. Are you sympathetic with the white nationalist movement yourself? Do you wish America was all white – no Black people, no Muslims, no Mexicans…
Sources and stats? Wait, have you been at the SPLC website? How is terrorism defined as you’re using it? Is this like the “Everytown for Gun Safety” spiel that defines a mass shooting different than the FBI crime stats? No offense, but you’re more than a little dishonest, you’re a racist, you’re a bigot, and you have no reading comprehension so people tend to take your claims with a grain of salt.
TEACH,
Although “corporations are people, my friend”, the US rarely holds them accountable for the damage they inflict on America and Americans. $200 billion a year McKesson, and the drug company products they ship, made and make billions of dollars off the misery of Americans, and the government has done very little to address the issue. Perhaps president Trump will be different.
Your complaint isn’t that large corporations made billions from killing Americans but that Bill Whitaker didn’t blame Obama?? Typical. You probably opposed the criticism heaped on the tobacco corporations, too.
The Trump administration has the same opportunity to go after drug companies and distributors. Let’s see if they do.
With the failure of the DEA and Congress to act, “41 state attorneys general have banded together to sue the opioid industry. While at McKesson, John Hammergren begins his 18th year as CEO. This year, the board awarded him an additional $1.1 million performance bonus. A bonus based on ethics and accountability.”
Thanks to the little guy for an example of the straw man fallacy.
[…] we found out that the Obama DOJ and high levels of the DEA spiked a DEA investigation into a big opioid maker. […]
HillaryBill typed:
http://www.politifact.com/california/article/2017/aug/31/who-carries-out-more-terror-attacks-us-soil-right-/
https://www.gao.gov/assets/690/683984.pdf
In an April 2017 report, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) found 85 attacks since 9/11, 62 by right-wingers and 23 by Islamists. But the Islamists killed more people than the right-wingers.
So all the innocent people killed by Islamic terrorists during 9/11 doesn’t count?
Fvck you, little dumbass.
