EXCLUSIVE — A Republican congressman’s decision to sell thousands of dollars worth in Apple stock as the Justice Department accelerated its antitrust investigation into the tech giant has been slammed by watchdogs.
On Feb. 15, Rep. Scott Franklin (R-FL) sold up to $50,000 in shares of Apple, a company that regulators have scrutinized amid monopoly concerns, according to a financial disclosure. That same day, it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that the DOJ was escalating its long-running antitrust investigation into Apple by assigning more litigators to review company documents.
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“Rep. Franklin’s very large sale of Apple stock on the same day that the Justice Department decided to advance its antitrust investigation of the company raises reasonable suspicions that Franklin may be using his public office for private gain,” Craig Holman, an ethics expert and lobbyist for the liberal think tank Public Citizen, told the Washington Examiner. “The congressman sits on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, providing an opportunity for access to inside information on Apple and the investigation.”
Holman added: “It cannot be known by this coincidence in timing alone whether Franklin actually received inside information about Apple, but it certainly raises troubling questions about the legitimacy of the transaction.”
Then-President Donald Trump’s DOJ opened an antitrust review in 2019 into Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon — seeking to examine whether the companies illegally stifle competition online. The DOJ’s Apple investigation under President Joe Biden relates to its third-party software policies, as well as iOS, the company’s mobile system that has been slammed for allegedly pushing its own products over other developers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal on Feb. 15 that the DOJ has looked at looping Jonathan Kanter, assistant U.S. attorney general for the department’s Antitrust Division, into the Apple inquiry. Kanter was cleared by the DOJ to oversee antitrust cases involving Alphabet, Google’s parent company, the outlet reported in mid-January.
Franklin, a new member of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, disclosed the Apple sale on March 8. The committee’s research and technology subcommittee, which Franklin also sits on, oversees “competitiveness” and “antitrust,” as well as “regulatory and other legal and governmental policies as they relate to technological development and commercialization,” according to its website.
“The congressman was not aware of the sales until February 22nd,” Russel Read, a spokesman for Franklin’s office, told the Washington Examiner. “He had asked his broker at the beginning of February to liquidate shares of stock to generate a certain dollar figure. He left it to the broker to decide which specific stocks, how many shares, and the date(s) of sale(s).”
Read claimed that the sales were in no way in connection to the DOJ’s antitrust investigation into Apple. Still, one right-leaning watchdog group said that types of transactions like that of Franklin’s cause people “to question the motivation of our elected officials.”
“Not only are members prohibited from trading stocks based on private information they have knowledge of, but they are also required to act impartially when taking any official action, and clearly their stock ownership can influence their actions,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, told the Washington Examiner.
“These types of conflicts of interest are especially difficult for the public to monitor because the public doesn’t have access to all the information the member does, nor is it possible for the public to know every action the Member takes on a daily basis — whether advocating for a position or making committee decisions,” Arnold added. “This makes it extremely important that all Members avoid even an appearance of a conflict.”
Another watchdog agreed with Arnold.
“Whether or not this particular trade was technically legal is almost beside the point,” Joshua Graham Lynn, CEO of RepresentUs, a nonpartisan anticorruption group, told the Washington Examiner. “Americans’ trust in Congress and our government institutions generally is already at a dangerous low — and examples like this only make it worse.”
Franklin has also disclosed other tech company stock trades as of late. He sold up to $100,000 combined in Microsoft shares on Feb. 15 and Feb. 21. Between March 2022 and September 2022, the congressman also disclosed buying up to $100,000 worth in Microsoft and up to $50,000 each in Apple and Alphabet, records show.
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Both Microsoft and Alphabet have been at the center of antitrust cases and investigations in recent years. The Federal Trade Commission brought an antitrust lawsuit in December 2022 that sought to block Microsoft’s acquisition of the game developer Activision, documents show.
One month later, in January 2023, the DOJ announced an antitrust lawsuit against Google in an attempt to break up parts of its ad business. The latest move came after the Trump DOJ alleged in an October 2020 lawsuit that Google illegally monopolized searching and advertising.
