Former judge defends his bid to break up Microsoft
C|Net | at | by Mike
Even at the time the trial began, Jackson had become unusually vocal in his public and private criticisms of Microsoft, which had been sued by the U.S. Justice Department and state attorneys general on antitrust charges. Jackson likened Microsoft executives to gangland killers and stubborn mules who should be walloped with a 2-by-4.
But what alarmed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit most was Jackson's habit of inviting favored reporters into his chambers for private conversations that involved trash-talking about the world's most famous antitrust defendant while court proceedings were under way. "The system would be a sham if all judges went around doing this," Chief Judge Harry Edwards warned at the time.