Thread by @Bill__Donahue

According to a report by @MiamiNewTimes last year, the new acting attorney general was a board member for "World Patent Marketing," a massive scam shut down by the @FTC: miaminewtimes.com/news/world-pat…

yikes:

According to the story, he lent a hand in helping to silence those who spoke out about the group's conduct:

Here's the full @FTC press release announcing the settlement with World Patent Marketing. The company was ordered to pay $25M and shut down: ftc.gov/news-events/pr…

Here's the press release from when Matthew Whitaker joined World Patent Marketing, including a statement from him: prnewswire.com/news-releases/…

this is a weird sentence to type but here goes

Below is a federal court document showing the new attorney general (right side) as a board member at a company that was shut down earlier this year after the FTC called it a "scam" that "bilked millions" from victims:

And here are the supposed payments to Whitaker and other board members, again pulled from a court doc filed in the FTC's case against World Patent Marketing:

Here's an email, obtained by the FTC, showing Whitaker threatening legal action against someone who wanted to report the scam to the Better Business Bureau.

Whitaker identifies himself as a former US Atty and as a member of the board, then warns of "criminal consequences":

would just like to reiterate that this last one is so wild.

to anyone who covers the legal biz, shady cease-and-desists like this are nothing new, but not from [checks paper, spits coffee] a guy who is now the Attorney General of the United States.