Bloomberg claims he didn’t know it was prison labor being used to make 2020 campaign calls for him

Michael Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential campaign hired ProCom, a New Jersey-based call center, which made calls for the campaign using labor from state prisons.

“We didn’t know about this, and we never would have allowed it if we had,” the campaign told the Intercept on Tuesday after an anonymous source tipped off the publication. “We don’t believe in this practice, and we’ve now ended our relationship with the subcontractor in question.”

The campaign said it learned about the company’s use of prison labor through the Intercept and ended its contract with the company on Monday.

The callers were required to say Bloomberg had paid for the calls, but not that they were state prisoners.

ProCom co-founder John Scallan said the company pays minimum wage to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, which then paid the prisoners. The Department of Corrections lists the maximum amount a prisoner can make as more than $20 and less than $30 a month.