Senator Ron Johnson was once again caught in a corrupt pay-to-play scheme, stopping a Big Pharma company from being subpoenaed for their role in the opioid epidemic, then taking thousands of dollars from them.
The timeline:
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December 2017: Senator Claire McCaskill requests that Senator Johnson, then Chair of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, use his power as Chair to subpoena Teva Pharmaceuticals for their role in the opioid epidemic.
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January 2018: Senator Johnson denies the request to subpoena Teva Pharmaceuticals.
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December 2018: Teva donates $2,500 to Senator Johnson’s leadership PAC.
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September 2019: Teva donates $1,000 directly to Senator Johnson.
The Cap Times: Ron Johnson didn’t subpoena a drug manufacturer. Then it donated to his campaign
Jack Kelly
08/12/22
Key points:
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Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, while serving as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in 2018, declined to subpoena Teva Pharmaceuticals as part of a Democrat-led investigation of the drugmaker’s role in the opioid epidemic. In the months to follow, Teva would donate to both Johnson’s campaign and an affiliated PAC.
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The subpoena would have been on behalf of former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat and ranking member of the committee who was leading a probe into several drug manufacturers and distributors exploring the companies’ role in the epidemic.
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Teva, an Israeli company, is one of the largest generic drug manufacturers in the world and produced more prescription painkillers during the height of the opioid crisis than more well-known manufacturers like Johnson & Johnson, the New York Times reported.
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Late last month, Teva reached a tentative agreement worth up to $4.25 billion to settle a flurry of lawsuits. The state of Wisconsin and some communities in the state will likely see money from that settlement.
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McCaskill asked Johnson to issue a subpoena to Teva to compel the company to produce any omitted information. In a January 2018 letter, the senator from Wisconsin declined to do so, saying he wasn’t convinced the drug manufacturer wasn’t cooperating.
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The senior senator from Wisconsin said McCaskill had not articulated why the information Teva had provided was insufficient, failed to outline what steps she had taken to “mitigate Teva’s confidentiality concerns” and didn’t prove how the materials she sought would “explain Teva’s ‘role in the opioids marketplace.’” He also expressed frustration that McCaskill had “initiated a significant inquiry into the opioid epidemic without seeking to work collaboratively with me.”
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McCaskill’s investigation seemed to stall after Johnson declined to subpoena Teva — though litigation against the company from numerous states, including Wisconsin, continued.
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In the year and a half after the public disagreement between Johnson and McCaskill, Teva’s political action committee made two donations, totaling $3,500, to Johnson’s campaign and an affiliated PAC.
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On Dec. 5, 2018, Teva donated $2,500 to Johnson’s leadership PAC, Strategy PAC.
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“Leadership PACs are designed for two things: to make money and to make friends, both of which are crucial to ambitious politicians looking to advance their careers,” according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying. “Leadership PACs are used to fund expenses that are ineligible to be paid by campaign committees or congressional offices. Those costs can include travel to raise a politician’s profile, for instance.”
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Nine months later, on Sept. 30, 2019, Teva then donated $1,000 directly to Johnson’s campaign.
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