I'm not sure the FTC really represents our best interests anymore. Seems like it may well be just one more captured agency paying lip service to the public while making sure corporations continue to get away with whatever makes them rich at our expense. In that case, not forcing them to admit guilt would line up quite nicely with their not fining AT&T enough to offset the profits they made by lying to consumers.

What would surprise me is if Randall Stephenson did something that wasn't some form of stealing from his customers.

Are you really surprised with this administration? I'd guess if I were a business with a pending investigation/lawsuit, I'd push really hard to "do business" with this environment, as opposed to what may come in 2021.

Some people will make anything an opportunity to say "orange man bad". Here's some other history:

* (2014) Verizon settles an overbilling case for $64MM, of which only $36MM went to payouts. [0]

* (2015) Verizon settles a robocalling class action for only $4MM. [1]

* (2009) Sprint settles an ETF class action for only $17.5MM [2]

* (2015) Sprint pays only $131MM to settle a lawsuit about their bungled $36 BILLION merger with Nextel [3]

This has far less to do with "this administration" and far more to do with how business is run in America. I'm not saying it's right, not at all, but I do want to point out that buying into this partisan nonsense distracts us (voters) from actually changing the system meaningfully (where "meaningful" is creating an environment where this doesn't happen).

[0] https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/closed-settl...

[1] And more... https://moneyinc.com/10-verizon-lawsuits-you-should-know-abo...

[2] https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-settling-clas...

[3] https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-pays-131m-to-...