Two Democratic senators are seeking to learn more about Rudy Giuliani’s role in shielding Oxycontin-maker Purdue Pharma from criminal charges in the mid-2000s.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire asked the Justice Department Friday to provide documents related to Giuliani’s involvement in a 2007 decision by the Bush administration to not charge Purdue executives with misleading the public over the abuse potential of Oxycontin. Giuliani is now President Trump’s personal attorney and representing him in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in elections.
The senators are asking whether Giuliani had an improper conflict of interest stemming from the fact that his consulting firm Giuliani Partners represented Purdue Pharma while also under contract with the DOJ.
“As our nation’s opioid epidemic continues to grow, it is important to understand whether any conflicts of interest improperly influenced agency decision-making to the harm of future victims,” the senators wrote in a letter to the Justice Department.
In 2006, career federal prosecutors concluded that Purdue Pharma concealed information about the significant abuse potential of Oxycontin, the popular opioid painkiller. But DOJ political appointees blocked indictments against the company and its executives, according to a May report in the New York Times.
Purdue Pharma hired Giuliani Partners in 2002 to help lobby the DOJ and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“Giuliani represented Purdue Pharma in negotiations with DOJ in 2006, convincing its political appointees to reject career prosecutors’ recommendations and accept a guilty plea to misdemeanor charges of intentionally ‘misbranding’ Oxycontin,” the letter read.
The company eventually agreed to pay a $640 million fine in 2007.
The settlement also assigned fault for the misbranding to Purdue Pharma’s holding company, called Purdue Frederick. This allowed Purdue Pharma to still do business on government programs like Medicaid, the letter said.
While Giuliani’s firm was negotiating for Purdue Pharma, the former New York mayor was personally raising money for a DEA museum and the firm had a $1 million consulting contract with DOJ to help reorganize its drug investigations.
“These facts suggest DOJ officials may have agreed to an inappropriately lenient treatment of Purdue Pharma simply because it was represented by Mr. Giuliani,” the letter said. “The public health consequences of that decision may have been immense, and deserve greater scrutiny by Congress and DOJ.”
In 2016, more than 42,000 people died from opioid overdoses, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids were also five times higher in 2016 compared to 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The senators want DOJ to turn over communications between Giuliani Partners and DOJ on Purdue Pharma. They also want to know whether any officials involved in the 2006 negotiations were aware of Giuliani’s involvement with the museum and the DOJ contract.
Purdue Pharma has been sued by nearly 20 states that charge the company misled them over Oxycontin’s abuse risks.
The DOJ declined to comment and Giuliani Partners did not immediately return a request for comment.
