Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg cuts ties with company using prison inmates to make campaign calls
NBC News has not independently verified The Intercept's reporting, which is not disputed by the Bloomberg campaign.
"We only learned about this when the reporter called us," Bloomberg wrote in a statement released by his campaign,"but as soon as we discovered which vendor's subcontractor had done this, we immediately ended our relationship with the company and the people who hired them.""We do not support this practice and we are making sure our vendors more properly vet their subcontractors moving forward," he continued.
In 2013, a federal judge ruled the practice unconstitutional, saying it amounted to"indirect racial profiling” that singled out black and Hispanic men. Ahead of his late entry into the 2020 field, Bloomberg apologized for the policy while addressing a black church, saying he can't change history but"I want you to know that I realize back then I was wrong."
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