Jeff Jackson

@connie_dulin True! I told her we claim her as a North Carolinian.

@JeffJacksonNC Wolfpack Nation is so proud of Christina Koch! Safe travels Artemis 🚀

For the first time in over 53 years, human beings are traveling back to the moon - and they'll do it with a brand new rocket and spacecraft. The crew is spectacular. I got to know Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen during my time on the Space Subcommittee in Congress. Incredible people, so smart, so kind, and always took the time to walk me through their phases of training and the technical challenges they were facing. We even talked space movies. They're experts there, too. They're about to spend 10 days on a trip around the moon and back. The plan is to put astronauts back on the moon in 2028 and then land roughly once a year after that to start building a permanent lunar base. NASA is incredible because of its people. The engineers, the flight directors, the mission planners - thousands of people who spent years working together to make this moment possible. Sending human beings beyond Earth and bringing them home safely is one of the most impressive things our species does. It's something the whole world can look up to and cheer for together. I'm truly excited about this mission. Beyond the prospects for discovery, we need bold adventures that demand our absolute best. Space does that. It puts a challenge in front of us that's bigger than any one person, any one team, any one country - and then we rise to meet it together. Godspeed, Artemis II.

Scam alert: If you get a text with something that looks like this, it's fake. It's a fake "Notice of Default" for a parking or toll violation. It references NC laws, a case number, a court date, a judge - none of it is real. If you look closely, even the state seal was generated by AI. The text around it is gibberish. The goal is to scare you into scanning a QR code and handing over your money or personal information. If you get this, delete it and block the sender. Official government agencies will never text you to demand payment. If you're concerned about an actual traffic or parking violation, contact the NC DMV directly. And if you think you've been targeted by a scam, call my office.

@billbourr She was genuinely very impressive. It was her first time making an argument before our state Supreme Court, as it was mine, but you couldn’t tell. Strong stuff.

@JeffJacksonNC Crediting opposing counsel is a classy move.

AGs almost never argue cases themselves, but when my team told me about this one, I volunteered. The facts: A man struck another in the head with a pistol, then stomped on him, breaking his jaw and teeth and leaving him unconscious in the road at night. That part is uncontested. He was convicted and didn’t appeal that charge. But he was also convicted of robbing the victim of his wallet and phone - but the robbery occurred *after* the victim lost consciousness due to the attack. So his argument, in short, was, “You can’t prove I’m the one who robbed him because he was unconscious at the time.” My argument came down to this: The window for someone else to rob an unconscious man lying in a dark road was narrow, and a reasonable jury should be allowed to conclude - as they unanimously did at trial - that the person who pistol-whipped and stomped the victim was the same person who robbed him. Crucially, the defendant had actually done this before - he had pistol-whipped someone else and robbed them. And the jury knew that. But the bigger point was the precedent. If this argument stands, you’re telling every future robber in North Carolina that the smart move is to knock your victim unconscious first. Beat them badly enough that they can’t say who took their wallet, and you walk on the robbery charge. We can’t create that incentive.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Last week, the Court ruled in our favor. The robbery conviction stands. My thanks to our team at NCDOJ who spent a good chunk of time prepping me for the case, to opposing counsel who did an outstanding job on behalf of her client, and to our Justices for their thoughtful engagement and tough questions.

Just a reminder: Legally, this merger blows past the thresholds that have limited this kind of consolidation for a long time.

This merger will impact the whole country, but will especially be felt in North Carolina. Higher prices for TV, fewer local newsrooms, more centralized control over the news people see - these will be the results if this merger goes through.

I agree with Sen. Ted Cruz. The FCC decision to fast-track approval of the Nexstar/Tegna merger bypassed its full commission, which was a move clearly designed to get ahead of our lawsuit, not to serve the public interest. As chair of the Commerce Committee, I’m asking Sen. Cruz to use his oversight authority over FCC to challenge this decision.

@xDungeonCrawler It’s always good news to me when the cases we’re involved in get bipartisan support. Unlikely allies are always welcome.

@JeffJacksonNC Oof. Hurts to physically type that first part out and then push send, amirite?

We’ve got a big new case to block a massive TV merger that will raise prices and hurt local news, especially in NC. This could impact 80% of American homes.

When cartels need to launder the money they make from selling fentanyl, one of the main ways they do it is through a Chinese-based messaging app called Weixin. Weixin is popular with cartels because it completely refuses to cooperate with American law enforcement, creating a black box for financial crimes. Fentanyl kills about six North Carolinians a day. Weixin's complicity is helping fuel that. We're leading a bipartisan group of AGs to tackle this. Our first step was confronting Weixin's sister app, WeChat, also a popular destination for cartel money laundering. We gave WeChat 30 days to respond to our demands, and they did. We secured new commitments: money laundering detection tools, cooperation with law enforcement, 48-hour emergency response times. But Weixin is not willing to do the same. So we're escalating. Our bipartisan group of AGs is formally requesting that the president make Weixin, and its role in the fentanyl money laundering pipeline, a national security priority. The president has made tackling the fentanyl epidemic a priority. To fully do that, we must address Weixin’s role in fentanyl money laundering. I appreciate South Carolina AG Alan Wilson for joining me this morning in Charlotte to announce this effort, just as he stood with me a year ago when we first confronted WeChat. He’s been a real partner on this, and as a neighboring state that partnership is especially important and appreciated. I also appreciate Charlotte Police Chief Patterson and Chief Deputy Butler for joining us and describing how they are pushing the frontier of fentanyl investigation and enforcement. Their work saves lives, and we’re grateful for their service.

For more detail about our legal argument, when I say it's not a close call, here's what I mean: There's a standard measure the federal government uses to determine whether a merger puts too much power in one company's hands. It's been the benchmark for antitrust enforcement for decades. If a merger pushes concentration above a certain level and increases it by more than 100 points, the law presumes it's illegal. In the NC markets affected by this deal, the increase isn't 200 points or 500 points. It's over 1,000 points in every single one. The legal trigger is 100. This deal hits 13 times that in Charlotte, 14 times in the Triad, and 19 times in Norfolk. Not a close call.

Update: Yesterday, we filed a lawsuit to block the biggest TV merger in history (Nexstar + Tegna). That sparked a sprint by Nexstar to try to close the deal before a court could stop them. Less than 24 hours after we filed, USDOJ reportedly dropped its investigation, the FCC waived the rules that would normally block a merger this big, and Nexstar announced the deal was closed. Their CEO thanked the FCC chairman by name. Not so fast. This morning, I joined a group of AGs and filed an emergency motion asking the court to freeze this merger to give it time to hear our case. This merger deserves a full hearing before Nexstar starts raising TV prices on almost half the families in North Carolina and laying off reporters at local news stations across the state. This isn't speculation. Nexstar told its investors it expects to make roughly $135 million a year from charging higher fees to your cable and satellite provider, and another $165 million from "synergies" - their word for laying people off. And the law is on our side. When a merger gives one company this much control over a market, federal antitrust law presumes it's illegal. In every single NC market affected by this deal, the concentration blows past the legal threshold. It's not a close call, and that's probably why they tried to skip the part where a judge weighs in. Our emergency motion was just filed. I'll keep you posted.

@leholmes52 Yes

@JeffJacksonNC Using the Clayton Act, yes?

Today we filed a lawsuit to block the largest TV merger in American history. The biggest local TV company in the country wants to buy one of its biggest competitors. Why should you care? Because it would mean paying more for TV. It would hit about half the families in North Carolina. Nationally, about 80%. If you watch Sunday afternoon football, local news, or network shows, you'd end up paying more. It would also gut local news. Fewer reporters, fewer stories, less scrutiny on state and local leaders. This company has a track record of merging newsrooms after it buys a competitor. In one city, two supposedly competing stations now share the same anchors, the same news director, and the same website. Two channels. One newsroom. The company has said it expects to make roughly $135m from raising prices and another $165m from "synergies" - i.e., laying people off. The USDOJ has historically been the one to challenge mergers like this, and it did, twice, when Nexstar tried similar mergers in 2016 and 2020. But that's not happening right now. The federal antitrust enforcers who are supposed to be policing these deals have stepped back, and that's left a void. State attorneys general are filling it. That's why eight AGs have filed this case together, and I'll keep you posted.

@equusjf Nexstar and Tegna

@JeffJacksonNC Which TV stations are involved? You didn’t mention them here.

To go a little more into the weeds on our case, take a look at this chart. The federal government has a standard index to measure whether a merger concentrates too much power in one company. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have used it for decades. Courts rely on it. When a merger pushes concentration past a certain threshold and increases it by more than 100 points, it's presumed illegal. In every single NC market affected by this deal, the merger doesn’t just cross the legal threshold. It obliterates it.

We just secured $2.5 million in restored federal funding for North Carolina public schools. Back in December, the Department of Education unlawfully cut a $50 million grant that supports about 23,000 students in our state, including in counties still recovering from Hurricane Helene. We sued. As a result of our lawsuit, those schools will keep receiving their funding through the end of the school year. Good outcome for now, but the case isn't over. wcti12.com/news/local/ag-…

@axios True.

It's the terminally online news junkies who are detached from the actual reality. We've been manipulated by algorithms and politicians amplifying the worst of humanity. Our feeds and screens spread a twisted, inaccurate view of America.

USDOJ just cut a backroom deal with Live Nation and Ticketmaster - in the middle of our trial. The deal is terrible. We're not signing it. See you back in court, Ticketmaster.