Not long after the hearing, however, the attorney reached back out to the court to claim that he had been mistaken. “I was wrong,” Cohen said. “The Commission does not have resource constraints, and we are fully prepared to litigate this case,” the lawyer relayed. “Please be assured that the FTC will meet whatever schedule and deadlines the court sets.”

Amazon has shot down the idea that the government isn’t prepared for the case. “There has been no showing on this call that the government does not have the resources to proceed to trial with the trial date as presently set,” said John Hueston, the company’s lawyer. “What I heard is that they’ve got the whole trial team still intact. Maybe there’s going to be an office move. And by the way, both in government and private sector, I’ve never heard of an office move being more than a few days disruptive.”