DOJ responds to Apple’s request to replace attorney in ebooks case (Update: Court denies Apple’s request, too)

Following Apple’s formal request last week that Michael Bromwich be removed from his role in ensuring the Cupertino company meets compliances set by the anti-trust ruling in last year’s ebooks trial, the Department of Justice has pushed back (via GigaOm) with a denial letter accusing Apple of ‘character assassination’.

Regrettably, it is now clear that Apple has chosen a campaign of character assassination over a culture of compliance. Apple could have been spending the past months working with the External Compliance Monitor with the ultimate goal of reforming its policies and training, and in the process change its corporate tone to one that reflects a commitment to abiding by the requirements of the antitrust laws. Instead, Apple has focused on personally attacking Mr. Bromwich, and thwarting him from performing even the most basic of his court-ordered functions.

Apple originally expressed its unhappiness with its working relationship with the attorney appointed to monitor its compliances citing what they believed to be exuberant expenses charged by the attorney and over widening the investigation by interviewing Apple execs not related to the trial.

If Apple was unsatisfied with language and behavior expressed by Mr. Bromwich, it surely won’t be pleased with the DOJ’s expression that Apple’s complaint was “littered with factual inaccuracies and gross exaggerations.” The DOJ concluded in its response that the attorney appointed to monitor Apple’s compliance expressed no bias and presumably will remain assigned to his duty.

Update: Reuters reports that the court has responded to the DOJ’s letter by denying Apple’s request to remove Mr. Bromwich. 

U.S. judge denies Apple bid to put e-books monitoring on hold; will have 48 hours after opinion is filed to seek an emergency stay. $AAPL

— Reuters Business (@ReutersBiz) January 13, 2014

Related articles

• Apple asks court to remove ebooks compliance monitor from his post(9to5mac.com)

  ---

• $138,432 – one lawyer’s fee to Apple for a fortnight’s work overseeing ebooks anti-trust compliance(9to5mac.com)

  ---