ttorney General Phil Weiser today led a group of attorneys general in opposing the Justice Department’s proposed settlement in the $14 billion HPE/Juniper Networks merger. The coalition of attorneys general also urged the judge overseeing the case to hold a hearing to determine if the merger is in the public interest and whether it was obtained through the kind of influence peddling that federal law intended to prevent.

In a letter to the Justice Department, the state attorneys general take issue with the department’s approval of the merger (PDF)  and say that the court should “examine the process that led to the Proposed Final Judgment in this case to uncover whether it has been terminally infected by precisely the type of backroom dealing the Tunney Act was intended to prevent.”