UnitedHealth
disambig
---
7 26 We Talked to a Trump Whistleblower. What He Saw Will Shock You.
Jul 7, 2026
There's a set of MAGA lobbyists in DC who can get you anything you want from the White House, legal or not. Ticketmaster, Paramount, crypto companies — they're all exploiting this pay-to-play system.
KROGER REALPAGE UNITED HEALTH AMAZON GGL LINA KHAN // JDV?!
GAIL S ROGER ALFORD BOSS
1:33
1 minute, 33 seconds
[Liz Scheltens] For the last 40 years, across administrations from both parties, politicians have mostly been content to let corporations keep getting bigger and more powerful.
1:43
1 minute, 43 seconds
But in recent years, something has started to shift. [Anchor] The federal government is suing to block the largest supermarket merger in U.S. history...
1:52
1 minute, 52 seconds
...arguing that it would reduce the number of supermarkets, which would mean higher prices.
1:55
1 minute, 55 seconds
Today, the Justice Department and eight states sued software company RealPage, alleging it illegally helped landlords unfairly fix prices and raise rents throughout the country.
2:07
2 minutes, 7 seconds
At the end of the first Trump administration, there were very large and significant monopoly cases that were brought against Facebook and against Google.
2:16
2 minutes, 16 seconds
[Liz Scheltens] When Lina Khan took over the Federal Trade Commission under President Biden, she and her colleagues in the Department of Justice continued those suits, and filed dozens more.
2:26
2 minutes, 26 seconds
[Anchor] Department of Justice has launched an antitrust probe into UnitedHealth. The move is part of the Biden administration’s push to lower drug prices.
...5:15
5 minutes, 15 seconds
We want him in a very high capacity. Mike Davis. Mike. Thank you, Mike. Where is Mike? Mike is great.
5:24
5 minutes, 24 seconds
Mike Davis actually recommended Gail Slater to President Trump for the top antitrust job. Davis has denied the threatening phone call.
5:32
5 minutes, 32 seconds
But it is true that a couple of weeks after the election, he started getting big checks from corporations like Hewlett Packard Enterprise, who wanted him to use his connections to push their mergers through.
5:42
5 minutes, 42 seconds
[Roger Alford] His salary is $300,000 a month. He has a contingency fee of over $1 million for any successful mergers.
5:51
5 minutes, 51 seconds
They hire this lobbyist and the lobbyist starts talking to higher-ups, saying, you like us, we're on your team.
5:59
5 minutes, 59 seconds
Just tell them to drop the case. [Liz Scheltens] And they did.
6:02
6 minutes, 2 seconds
DOJ sources told the Wall Street Journal that a couple of weeks after the threatening phone call, Gail Slater's boss, quote, “placed a document on her desk.”
6:11
6 minutes, 11 seconds
It was a settlement deal written by Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s own lawyers. It was a genuine shock.
6:19
6 minutes, 19 seconds
When Gail Slater asked her boss what would happen if she refused to sign it, he told her, quote, “She was too difficult to fire, but he would fire her deputies.” She signed, and then he fired them anyway.
6:32
6 minutes, 32 seconds
And we all basically strongly suggested that that was inappropriate. And as a result of that, I was terminated.
6:39
6 minutes, 39 seconds
[Anchor] Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, they're up more than 12%, after the DOJ gave the green light for the proposed $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks.
6:48
6 minutes, 48 seconds
This is oligarchy in action: company gets sued, they hire a million-dollar fixer with the president's ear to leverage his loyalty and make sure that the suit goes away.
6:58
6 minutes, 58 seconds
They get a sweetheart deal, and then, when someone like Roger Alford gets in the way, they make sure he gets fired.
7:04
7 minutes, 4 seconds
This type of, let's call it, pay-for-play politics hadn't happened since Watergate. They're dropping cases because they decided someone's a friend.
7:13
7 minutes, 13 seconds
That's not the rule of law. That's the opposite of the rule of law.
7:16
7 minutes, 16 seconds
A few months later, one of America's most hated companies decided to try the same play for themselves.
7:24
7 minutes, 24 seconds
[Anchor] Outrage over Ticketmaster and Live Nation gouging consumers on big concerts.
...
7:50
7 minutes, 50 seconds
A bunch of state attorneys general signed on to the suit as well, including Phil Weiser of Colorado and Jonathan Skrmetti of Tennessee.
7:57
7 minutes, 57 seconds
I mean, there was tremendous evidence of very aggressive, almost mafia-like tactics.
8:02
8 minutes, 2 seconds
We had some witnesses, they would get a phone call and it was basically like, “Hey, nice arena you have there.
8:08
8 minutes, 8 seconds
Be a shame if anything happened to it.” You know, we have the internal conversations laughing about how dumb their customers are and how great it is that they can rip ’em off.
8:16
8 minutes, 16 seconds
[Anchor] The messages between two ticketing directors saying, “These people are so stupid.” Another message saying, “Robbing them blind, baby.”
8:25
8 minutes, 25 seconds
[Liz Scheltens] When President Trump took office in 2025, his Department of Justice decided to continue the Ticketmaster suit. Ticketmaster thought they would try the same play as Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
8:35
8 minutes, 35 seconds
They hired Kellyanne Conway, Trump's former campaign manager, as a fixer. They donated to Trump's inaugural fund.
8:41
8 minutes, 41 seconds
And they hired Mike Davis, the same fixer who got Hewlett Packard Enterprise their sweetheart deal.
8:48
8 minutes, 48 seconds
Davis went after Roger Alford's boss, Gail Slater.
8:52
8 minutes, 52 seconds
[Roger Alford] Once it became clear that Gail Slater was going to resolve these cases on the merits and wasn't going to listen to Mike Davis based on arguments other than the merits, he turned on her.
9:02
9 minutes, 2 seconds
He directly lobbied the president of the United States to get someone who was committed to enforcing antitrust laws on the merits to be removed.
9:10
9 minutes, 10 seconds
[Anchor] The head of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division is out.
9:14
9 minutes, 14 seconds
Gail Slater was fired today from the role after months of tension with the Trump administration. [Liz Scheltens] The moment Gail Slater's firing hit the news, Live Nation’s stock price skyrocketed.
9:24
9 minutes, 24 seconds
Shareholders were anticipating big payouts on the backs of consumers. [echo] Robbing them blind, baby. And then, two weeks after she was fired...
9:32
9 minutes, 32 seconds
[Anchor] The Justice Department has reached a settlement with Live Nation in its antitrust case. Not everyone is on board. The proposed settlement didn’t even rise to the level of a slap on the wrist.
9:41
9 minutes, 41 seconds
[Liz Scheltens] Live Nation wouldn't have to sell off Ticketmaster, just a handful of venues.
9:46
9 minutes, 46 seconds
So it looked like the same play had worked again: get sued, hire a fixer, get a sweetheart deal.
9:53
9 minutes, 53 seconds
But there was one wrinkle for Ticketmaster.
9:56
9 minutes, 56 seconds
From my perspective, this was not a sufficient settlement to take care of Tennessee consumers.
10:01
10 minutes, 1 second
A bunch of those state AGs decided to continue with the suit, even after the Department of Justice settled.
...
10:51
10 minutes, 51 seconds
[Phil Weiser] The president put up a social media post and said, let the deal through.
10:55
10 minutes, 55 seconds
Now, we don't know exactly what happened behind those scenes, but I want to underscore how unusual that is.
11:01
11 minutes, 1 second
There was no DOJ investigation when the country's largest real estate brokerage, Compass, wanted to buy its rival Anywhere.
11:08
11 minutes, 8 seconds
Now, they're free to saddle middle-class homebuyers with even more junk fees in a housing market we can already barely afford.
11:16
11 minutes, 16 seconds
Compass even hired Mike Davis, the same fixer that got HPE and Live Nation their deals.
11:22
11 minutes, 22 seconds
But nothing has made the corruption more clear than the Department of Justice's recent approval of the merger between Paramount and Warner Brothers.
11:31
11 minutes, 31 seconds
The deal puts one of Trump's top political donors at the head of a media empire that will include CNN, CBS and HBO.
11:40
11 minutes, 40 seconds
And according to the Wall Street Journal, the staff attorneys in the antitrust division were leaning toward suing to prevent this merger.
11:48
11 minutes, 48 seconds
But again, they were overruled by the top brass at the Department of Justice.
11:53
11 minutes, 53 seconds
State AGS are teaming up to challenge the HPE, Nexstar, and Compass mergers in court, and they're considering whether to do the same for Paramount.
...
4:12
Hewlett Packard Enterprise looking to buy Juniper Networks.
---
---
TDB
Hegseth’s Venmo Is on Display in Embarrassing Leak
Pete Hegesth’s Venmo is publicly viewable and showing his full list of friends and contacts, according to a report.
While Hegseth’s transactions are private, his list of friends on the mobile payment service isn’t—and it’s a who’s who of Washington bigwigs, defense contractors, and healthcare executives, The American Prospectreported.
A name appearing on Hegseth’s friends list could mean he has transacted with the person, but Venmo also has an option to automatically add phone contacts as friends in the app. At the very least, it suggests that the two people are in touch.
All over the list are executives from up-and-coming Silicon Valley defense contractors Palantir (founded by Republican superdonor Peter Thiel) and Anduril, both of which already have multimillion-dollar contracts with the DOD. They could be poised for additional deals under Hegseth’s regime.
Hegseth’s rolodex appears to include executives from Palantir, a defense contractor founded by major GOP donor Peter Thiel. / Marco Bello / Getty Images
His other ties to Silicon Valley include Google’s former director of law enforcement and information security, a former advisor to Thiel’s hedge fund, and former Sen. Scott Brown—who since leaving Congress has become the leader of Competitiveness Coalition, a group that advocates against anti-trust action.
In addition to defense and tech, the healthcare industry is well represented in Hegseth’s contacts. The friends list features executives at UnitedHealth Group, including a vice president, product director, and public affairs consultant.
Hegseth has long pushed for the privatization of Veterans Affairs, the government agency that supplies health insurance for military veterans. As an advisor to the White House during Trump’s first term, he even reportedly advocated outsourcing more of the agency’s work.
While Hegseth doesn’t oversee VA as defense secretary, he could directly attempt to privatize Tricare, the health insurance option for active duty military members.
...
---
---
an 52 5
U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio wanted to slip a sweeping measure into a spending bill that would gut the Federal Trade Commission. Critics say it’s no coincidence that the FTC is suing mammoth health care conglomerates and tech giants like Amazon.
Jordan is chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee. Last week, it released a version of a bill that included tax cuts, federal spending cuts and more spending at the border.
It also contained provisions that would give Trump sweeping new powers to gut government regulations. It would also transfer funds and personnel currently controlled by the FTC to the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department — without the FTC’s unique enforcement authority going with them.
The measure was abruptly nixed, but it would have effectively killed antitrust powers Congress created more than a century ago.
The FTC history
Amid abuses to consumers by big corporations, the Federal Trade Commission Act was passed in 1914. Antitrust enforcement by the Department of Justice dates back further, to 1903.
But the Justice Department is overseen by the attorney general, a presidential appointee. Attorneys general traditionally have had a high degree of independence, but Trump is said to be politicizing the Justice Department at a breakneck pace.
The FTC was created in part to be more independent. It’s governed by commissioners from both parties who are appointed to fixed terms that can be renewed.
Earlier this year, Trump tried to fire the two Democratic commissioners, but they say the move was illegal, and they’re fighting it in court. Antitrust advocates said Trump was doing that as a favor to his billionaire supporters such as Elon Musk.
The two Democratic commissioners, Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter, acted to block the Kroger-Albertson’s mega-merger, and they voted to sue Amazon, saying it is “illegally maintaining monopoly power.”
Under Jordan’s leadership, the Judiciary Committee in 2023 attacked the FTC on behalf of Musk. He’s the world’s richest man, whom Trump is allowing to make deep cuts to federal programs for the elderly, veterans, the poor, and agencies that promote science and health.
“THE WEAPONIZATION OF THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION: AN AGENCY’S OVERREACH TO HARASS ELON MUSK’S TWITTER,” read the all-caps title of the Jordan-led committee’s report.
A year earlier, the FTC had charged Twitter with using deceptively gathered data from users to target ads at them. If true, it would be added to the fact that an unofficial, Musk-run entity is now collecting much more sensitive government data. It’s raised concerns among several federal judges who said such collections invite abuse and likely violate the law.
“One of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency lieutenants working in the Social Security Administration has been pushing dubious claims about noncitizens voting, apparently using access to data that court records suggest (the so-called Department of Government Efficiency) isn’t supposed to have,” NPR reported earlier this month.
The proposal from Jordan to gut the FTC could have halted major initiatives to regulate giant health conglomerates that own powerful pharmacy middlemen, said Bedoya, one of the commissioners Trump is trying to fire.
Jordan’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment on this story.
PBMs
Each of the three conglomerates — UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health and Cigna-Express Scripts — is among the 15 largest corporations in the United States. Each owns a top-ten health insurer and each owns a pharmacy middleman known as a pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM.
Combined, the PBMs control nearly 80% of the insured drug transactions in the United States. They decide which drugs are covered and use that power toextractrebates from drugmakers. They also determine varying reimbursements to pharmacies — including ones owned by their parent companies as well as the pharmacies with which they compete. Critics — including four-fifths of state attorneys general — say they have a conflict of interest under the arrangement, and that they abuse it.
Last October, the FTC sued the conglomerates, saying they used their dominance in multiple parts of the marketplace to illegally jack up the price of insulin — a drug millions of diabetics need to survive.
The lawsuit comes after the agency in 2022 undertook a major investigation of the health conglomerates. In January, it released an interim report accusing the PBMs of using their dominance to instigate wild price hikes and possibly steer business to affiliated pharmacies.
Politico recently reported that Jordan said his move to consolidate the FTC into the Justice Department was meant to “address the cost of over-regulation.”
“Part of our jurisdiction in Judiciary deals with regulatory concerns and so we are looking at … spending and costs associated with certain regulations. That’s why that language is written the way it was,” Politico reported him as saying.
Many businesses facing regulation — and their advocates in government — have long focused only on the costs. But government regulation can also protect health, safety, the environment, economic stability and competition. Some researchers have said regulation can always be smarter, but its benefits far outweigh the costs.
In a social media post last week, Bedoya, the FTC commissioner, said Jordan’s proposed changes to the agency served another agenda.
“This will gut the FTC,” Bedoya wrote. “FTC is trying to finish a study that already showed how pharmacy middlemen mark up cancer drugs by up to 4,000%. It’s also suing them for allegedly competing to raise insulin prices. If this passes I have no idea what’ll happen to that study and lawsuit.”
Bedoya added, “Take the lawsuit. The draft bill purports to transfer FTC lawyers and lawsuits to DOJ — but it doesn’t transfer the laws that FTC enforces, or authority to enforce those laws. Look (at) page 98 — employees, assets, funding — but no authorities.”
Bedoya also said that when it created the FTC, Congress meant to augment the government’s antitrust powers. Jordan’s changes would remove the government’s ability to police “unfair methods of competition,” Bedoya said, implying that Jordan was trying to slash the government’s power to police wealthy corporations in an era when the political influence of the mega-rich is exploding and the wealth gap is yawning.
“The purpose behind the FTC’s creation in 1914 was to supplement the existing enforcement mechanism (and enforcement gap created by) the Department of Justice,” Bedoya said on X. “When FTC was created in 1914, it alone was authorized to stop something called ‘unfair methods of competition.’ DOJ did not get this” under Jordan’s proposal.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE. SUPPORT
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.
==
[The Deadly Consequences Of UnitedHealth’s Unchecked Growth
Failure to block the insurance giant’s market consolidation, including by a judge with a potential conflict of interest, has led to worse care, higher prices, and a mounting human toll.
Parshley
https://www.levernews.com/the-deadly-consequences-of-unitedhealths-unchecked-growth