WASHINGTON — Worried about the economy, the judge who found Microsoft guilty of violating antitrust laws is putting the penalty phase of the trial on a fast track.
Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson scheduled a hearing on remedies for May 24 — and told lawyers on both sides that he wants to decide Microsoft’s fate by as early as June.
The move came as Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told lawmakers on Capitol Hill yesterday he hopes to drag out his case in the appeals courts — long enough to strike a better deal from a new presidential administration next year.
Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), Microsoft’s biggest congressional booster, said after a meeting that Gates prefers taking the case to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — a pro-business three-judge panel, where Microsoft has already prevailed over the Justice Department in earlier cases.
But Jackson is considering invoking a rarely used 1974 law for antitrust cases of national interest to expedite the appeals process, possibly bypassing the federal appeals courts and sending the case directly to the Supreme Court for a final decision by the end of the year.
Microsoft is facing possible sanctions, ranging from being forced to share the secret source code for its Windows operating system with competitors, to being broken up into three to five “Baby Bills.”
Gates personally lobbied Washington to go easy on his company just two days after Jackson ruled against it.
Gates, who was assailed by government lawyers during the lengthy antitrust trial, sat next to President Clinton at a White House conference on the “new” high-tech economy and received presidential praise for the $750 million in charitable contributions that he and wife Melinda have made to help protect children against disease.
Later, at a meeting with GOP House members, Gates was asked whether a new administration would make a difference in the outcome of the case.
“Probably yes,” Gates replied, according to two members of Congress who were on hand.