Maryland
Maryland federal judge sets timeline for preliminary hearings in DOJ-Booz Allen antitrust lawsuit
John Hewitt Jones
A federal decide in Maryland has set out a timeline for pre-trial depositions within the Division of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit towards Booz Allen Hamilton over the corporate’s acquisition of nationwide safety know-how firm EverWatch.
In a memorandum filed Sept. 6, United States District Choose Catherine C. Blake referred to as on each events to change deposition designations on or earlier than Sept. 7 and to serve objections and counter-objections on or earlier than Sept. 9.
The court docket will then focus on objections at a pre-trial convention on Sept. 13, in response to the memo.
In response to the ruling of Choose Blake, all sides might be entitled to designate or counter-designate a complete of three hours of deposition testimony throughout the pre-trial listening to.
Particulars of the timeline for the preliminary listening to are the newest step within the lawsuit filed by the DOJ after Booz Allen in March introduced its plan to amass EverWatch for an undisclosed sum.
Final month the DOJ argued in a submission to the court docket that the deal would negatively have an effect on a key intelligence modeling and simulation providers procurement run by the Nationwide Safety Company.
This got here after Booz defended the deal in court docket paperwork, stating that the transaction would improve competitors within the authorities providers area and help the nation’s nationwide safety targets. In its protection on the time, the corporate described the DOJ’s antitrust considerations as “imaginative” and “overreaching.”
A Booz Allen Hamilton spokesperson stated: “We’re happy with and appreciative of the Court docket’s steerage relating to deposition testimony.”
“The factual file on this matter continues to ascertain that DOJ’s preliminary assumptions of this transaction had been flawed, and that this transaction would improve general business competitors and ship advantages for each the federal government buyer and, in the end, American taxpayers,” the spokesperson added.
The DOJ didn’t reply to a request for remark.