Lisa Phelan spoke to Bloomberg Law about the Justice Department's (DOJ) defeat in its lawsuit against chicken industry executives, which adds to a string of antitrust losses that casts a shadow on its scrutiny of the meat industry and broader enforcement goals.
One of the DOJ's missteps in the trio of chicken price-fixing trials was a lack of strong witnesses and evidence.
"You're able to be more aggressive if you build the house first: come out with plea agreements, get people to realize they're in trouble and plead guilty," Lisa said.
Unlike with most other white collar crime, documents can only tell part of the story. For the rest, "You need an insider witness, a co-conspirator that can say 'yes we did this,'" Lisa added.
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