Ilhan Omar

The US labor board’s top prosecutor on Thursday defended her push to settle one of the government’s most consequential cases against Amazon.com Inc., telling members of Congress she wasn’t required to recuse herself despite the e-commerce behemoth being her former client.

During testimony before a US House subcommittee, Crystal Carey, the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel, was asked by US Representative Ilhan Omar about her office’s proposed settlement in a yearslong case involving Amazon’s responsibilities to subcontracted drivers. Amazon contracts with thousands of “delivery service partner” vendors to oversee hundreds of thousands of drivers who deliver millions of packages daily. Starting under President Joe Biden, and continuing through the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, the agency had been prosecuting a landmark complaint arguing that Amazon exercised enough control to be liable as the “joint employer” of a group of such drivers who unionized in Palmdale, California, and was obligated to collectively bargain with them.