UPDATE: Late Monday afternoon, Reuters reported that U.S. District Judge Denise Cote refused Apple’s request to dismiss the court-appointed monitor, and said she would not stay her order imposing antitrust remedies. Original story below.

The U.S. Department of Justice had harsh words for Apple(s aapl) in an ongoing dispute over the behavior of a monitor appointed to oversee the company’s ebook pricing practices.

“Apple has chosen a campaign of character assassination over a culture of compliance,” the government stated in a new letter to the court (embedded below), which also accused Apple of missing a chance to “change its corporate tone” by working with court-appointed monitor Michael Bromwich.

The new letter comes after Apple filed a formal request last week to remove Bromwich, citing his excessive fees and a spirit of mission creep that led him to demand interviews with a long list of the company’s senior executives.

Bromwich was…