2026年7月9日 / 美国东部时间下午3:05 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
华盛顿——加利福尼亚州联邦参议员、民主党人亚当·希夫正启动国会调查，以查明司法部为何终止一项针对雅培实验室旗下一家婴儿配方奶粉工厂克罗诺杆菌细菌污染的长期刑事调查。
在7月8日致代理司法部长托德·布兰奇的信中（哥伦比亚广播公司新闻已审阅该信件），希夫表示，他希望就司法部高级官员未采纳检察官建议对该公司及其数名高管提起重罪指控一事寻求解释。
“在您的管理下，司法部在收到重罪指控建议后，并不认为涉及对医疗敏感婴儿构成致命风险的案件值得提起刑事诉讼，”希夫写道。
“如果起诉涉及早产儿受伤或死亡风险的案件并非优先执法事项，那我不禁要问，司法部究竟认为哪些事项值得追究，”他补充道。
一名司法部发言人证实已收到希夫办公室发来的这封信。
2022年，在消费者投诉密歇根州斯特吉斯市雅培营养部门的产品导致婴儿患病后，雅培实验室召回了包括Similac在内的多款畅销粉状婴儿配方奶粉品牌。美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）当年3月表示，据报告有5名婴儿因细菌感染住院，并称这些感染“可能导致2名患者死亡”。
在一份声明中，雅培对哥伦比亚广播公司新闻表示，“所有未开封、已投放市场的雅培婴儿配方奶粉均未检测出阪崎克罗诺杆菌呈阳性”，并表示美国食品药品监督管理局也在2022年3月单独证实，“2022年召回事件发生时，受调查婴儿家中的未开封产品未检测出克罗诺杆菌”。
此外，雅培称，在四起案例中，检测的是开封后的配方奶粉容器，其中三份样本的克罗诺杆菌检测结果为阴性。第四份样本检测出两株阪崎克罗诺杆菌，其中一株与导致该婴儿感染的菌株一致。但这两株菌株均未在斯特吉斯工厂被发现。
雅培还表示，一年后，即2023年3月，他们在其中一名受影响婴儿的家中发现了吸奶器部件上存在阪崎克罗诺杆菌。
据知情人士透露，联邦检察官曾希望就此提起重罪指控，且他们得到了司法部刑事部门助理部长泰森·杜瓦的支持。
但消息人士补充称，司法部高级领导层下令终止该案件。根据5月12日公开的案卷记录，司法部目前正在就一起平行的《虚假申报法》案件与该公司达成民事和解，但尚未披露任何细节。
一名司法部高级官员对哥伦比亚广播公司新闻表示，司法部认为，就此事而言，通过《虚假申报法》达成民事和解是“实现问责、威慑和保护公众的最佳方式”。
该官员补充称，与雅培达成的原则性和解协议包括“数额可观”的罚款，并表示雅培计划在俄亥俄州新建一座价值10亿美元工厂的计划，并未影响司法部终止刑事调查的决定。
《华尔街日报》率先报道了该案被终止的消息。彭博政府新闻此前曾报道过杜瓦为保留该案所做的努力，以及该案如何引发了人们对涉及公共健康与安全的企业起诉浪潮退潮的广泛担忧。
《联邦食品、药品和化妆品法案》这一联邦法律禁止销售、分销或制造假冒、掺假或贴错标签的药品、医疗器械，以及食品、保健品和化妆品。
该法律允许检察官以严格责任标准对公司和个人提起轻罪指控，这意味着无需证明被告明知故犯地违反了法律。但从历史上看，司法部一直将调查重点放在该法律规定的重罪违规行为上。
在这起由多个州提起、司法部随后加入的《虚假申报法》公开案件中，雅培被指控向联邦和州监管机构谎报婴儿配方奶粉的生产条件。
“在雅培要求联邦法官驳回此案后，司法部律师在2026年2月的诉状中写道：‘雅培多次向美国农业部（USDA）和各州机构谎称，其生产粉状婴儿配方奶粉的条件符合美国食品药品监督管理局……的规定’。”
“雅培动议中提出的这些站不住脚的论点，都无法将多年来普遍存在的未按标准生产粉状婴儿配方奶粉的行为，歪曲为‘监管分歧’或‘记录保存’失误。”
希夫在致司法部的信中援引了这些法庭诉状中的部分内容，对司法部未提起刑事诉讼的决定提出质疑。
“对于如此严重的指控，一个致力于执法的司法部——无论其司法部长的政治派别如何——很可能会坚持同时提起刑事指控和民事处罚，而不仅仅是达成一笔仅作为企业经营成本的和解，”希夫写道。
他在信中还提出疑问，指出该公司的代理律所是柯克兰&埃利斯律师事务所，该律所去年曾与本届政府达成协议，为支持特朗普的事业提供无偿法律服务。
代表该公司的柯克兰&埃利斯律师事务所律师未回应置评请求。
在信中，希夫要求布兰奇就该案回答一系列问题，包括他是否亲自审阅过此案。
身为参议院司法委员会成员的希夫，将于7月15日亲自向代理司法部长询问雅培实验室一案——布兰奇当天 scheduled 出席该委员会的确认听证会，以正式就任司法部长。
Schiff launches inquiry into DOJ’s closure of probe into Abbott Labs over bacterial contamination at baby formula plant
July 9, 2026 / 3:05 PM EDT / CBS News
Washington— California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff is launching a congressional inquiry into why the Justice Department shuttered a long-running criminal investigation into Cronobacter bacterial contamination at an Abbott Laboratories plant that made baby formula.
In a July 8 letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche reviewed by CBS News, Schiff said he is seeking answers about why senior DOJ officials did not follow prosecutors’ advice to pursue felony charges against the company and several of its executives.
“Under your management, DOJ does not consider a case involving deadly risks to medically sensitive infants, after a recommendation of a felony charge, to be worthy of criminal prosecution,” Schiff wrote.
“If prosecuting cases involving the risk of injuries or death to premature infants are not a priority enforcement matter, I have questions about what priorities the DOJ considers worthy of pursuing,” he added.
A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed receiving the letter from Schiff’s office.
In 2022, Abbott Laboratories recalled several of its popular powdered formula brands, including Similac, after consumers complained about infant illness related to products from Abbott Nutrition, in Sturgis, Michigan. The FDA in March said five infants had to be hospitalized due to reported bacterial infections which it said “may have contributed to death in two patients.”
In a statement, the company told CBS News that “no unopened, distributed Abbott infant formulas have ever tested positive for Cronobacter sakazakii” and said the Food and Drug Administration also separately confirmed in March 2022 that “the unopened product from homes of the infants under investigation at the time of the 2022 recall tested negative for Cronobacter.”
Further, Abbott said that in four of the cases, open containers of formula were tested, and three of the four were negative for Cronobacter. It said the fourth was positive for two strains of Cronobacter sakazakii, one of which was the same strain that caused the infection in the infant. But neither of the two strains was found at the Sturgis plant.
Abbott also said that it learned a year later, in March 2023, that Cronobacter sakazakii was found on breast pump parts in the home of one of the four cases.
Federal prosecutors wanted to pursue felony charges in the case, and they had the support of Tysen Duva, the assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
However, senior DOJ leadership ordered the case closed, the sources added. The Justice Department is working on a civil settlement with the company in a parallel False Claims Act case, according to a public May 12 docket entry, but no details have been made public.
A senior DOJ official told CBS News that the department believed that a civil False Claims Act resolution was “the best mechanism to achieve accountability, deterrence and protection of the public” in the matter.
The official added that the agreement reached in principle with Abbott includes a “significant” monetary penalty, and said that Abbott’s plans to possibly build a new $1 billion facility in Ohio played no role in its decision to drop the criminal investigation.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the closure of the case. Bloomberg Government previously reported on Duva’s efforts to keep the case alive, and how the case has sparked broader concerns about a retreat of corporate prosecutions involving public health and safety.
A federal law known as the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act prohibits the sale, distribution or manufacturing of counterfeit, adulterated or misbranded drugs and medical devices, as well as food, supplements and cosmetics.
The law allows prosecutors to bring misdemeanor charges against companies and individuals under a strict liability standard, meaning they do not need to prove a defendant knowingly violated the law. But historically, the Justice Department has focused its efforts on investigating felony violations of the law.
In the public False Claims Act case, which was filed by numerous states and joined by the Justice Department, the company is accused of lying about the conditions under which the formula was manufactured to federal and state regulators.
“Abbott repeatedly lied to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (‘USDA’) and State agencies when it represented that it produced powder infant formula under conditions that complied with U.S. Food and Drug Administration … rules,” DOJ lawyers wrote in a February 2026 filing after the company asked a federal judge to dismiss the case.
“None of the misplaced arguments in Abbott’s motion can turn a years-long and widespread failure to manufacture compliant powder infant formula into a ‘regulatory disagreement’ or ‘record-keeping’ error.”
Schiff, in his letter to the Justice Department, pointed to some of the language in those court filings and questioned the department’s decision not to pursue a criminal case.
“For such serious allegations, a DOJ dedicated to enforcing the law — regardless of the political affiliation of its Attorney General — would likely insist on criminal charges and a civil penalty, not simply a settlement that is a cost of business for a corporation,” Schiff wrote.
He also raised questions in his letter about the fact that the company is represented by the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, which was one of the firms that struck a deal with the administration to provide pro-bono legal services to pro-Trump causes last year.
An attorney at Kirkland & Ellis who represents the company did not respond to a request for comment.
In his letter, Schiff asked Blanche to respond to a series of questions about the case, including whether he had personally reviewed it.
Schiff, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, will have an opportunity to ask the acting attorney general about the Abbott Labs case in person on July 15 — that’s when Blanche is scheduled to appear before the panel for his confirmation hearing to be attorney general.
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