There is still widespread agreement between Burr’s department and dozens of AGs on both sides that Google has a tough case against them, whose orders from both online search and digital ad markets have led to complaints from competitors in industries such as advertising, tech and media. But the proximity of the Nov. 3 election has intensified the biased dimensions of the controversy, including prospects about President Donald Trump’s anti-tech agenda and doubts about Joe Biden’s past closeness with Silicon Valley.
Lawyers at the top of legal strategy questions need to answer them before they can pull the trigger.
“This is a big case and hands will be cut and joked as we get closer.” Someone close to the anti-trust investigation said Friday.
“This could be the lawsuit of the century,” said another person familiar with the case. “I can see why there will be some legitimate, tough discussions among people who are serious about the odds of winning.”
The Justice Department and Google declined to comment. Seven people who spoke to Politico about the progress of the case declined to speak on the record while discussing the secret deliberations.
‘Decision time’ delay
This The fate of the case may become clearer in the coming days, as states are expected to make representations to the Department of Justice on their preferred approach to litigation in their favor. After that, if the department decides to push forward, it will finalize the complaint before sending it to the states, which will have seven to 10 days to decide whether they want to join.
If they do, the result could be a unified, bilateral legal attack against one of America’s largest, richest corporations.
The New York Times reported Thursday that it has set a Sept. 30 deadline for the case, citing objections from some career employees, who believe the investigation needs more time. Twelve told the Wall Street Journal in March that they hoped the decision would be made “early in the summer”, although the epidemic later helped slow progress by forcing them to work online.
Under Bar, a former top lawyer for Verizon, who was heavily involved in the company’s antitrust struggle, DOJ has made Google’s investigation one of its top priorities, having spent the past 15 months in control of the tech giant’s search, mobile and underlying technology. Lots of ads funding the open web. A coalition of 48 states plus Washington, DC and Puerto Rico began its investigation in September 2019, initially focusing on advertising technology but later expanded to cover other areas of Google’s business.
During a July meeting with the State Department of Justice, the Department of Justice’s lawyers outlined an antitrust case that would focus on the company’s dominance in online advertising and search, three people familiar with the consideration told Politico.
But since then cracks have come out on both the time and substance of the case, seven Individuals said. They said the bar and some leading Republican AGs are pushing for the case to be filed before the November election – for other reasons, so that it can survive if the Silicon Valley-friendly Biden administration takes power next year. Meanwhile, other AGOs are pushing for an investigation to continue, which could delay the start of the lawsuit until after the election and insulate it from any appearances run from Trump’s personal agenda.
Ads or Search?
Everyone involved in the discussion largely agrees on the need to bring an antitrust suit against Google, and the DOJ may choose to file a lawsuit without the attorney general’s help. But the involvement of large Democratic-run states such as New York will serve an important goal for proponents of the case – making it clear that bilateral support exists to take over the $ 1 trillion tech company that has largely survived changes in its business, despite being about $ 9 billion. European anti-trust fines
Biggest question: Which parts of Google’s business to sue?
Ad technology can present a simple antitrust case because Google displays such a large share of the global 162.3 billion global market for online display advertising. But some Democratic attorneys general believe that a case mostly focused on advertising would be too narrow – that suing Google without searching is like suing standard oil without focusing on oil. (John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil became the first major antitrust breakup in the United States in 1911.)
States have continued to collect data over the summer, sending document requests to Google’s competitors and other companies involved in the investigation, much like last week.
Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser – Obama-era DOJ anti-trust officer, takes the lead for states on search issues, and in January met Jonathan Sell Lett, who played key roles in the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department under Barack Obama.
Top DOJ officials and some Republican attorneys fear that any delay in filing a lawsuit is to Google’s advantage, as technology markets could change rapidly as antitrust suits drag on over the years. (It has been 13 years since the Reagan administration finally rejected the antitrust case filed by the U.S. against IBM in 1969.) And filing now will not prevent plaintiffs from filing an additional no-confidence claim later, or running another lawsuit against Google. , Many people noticed.
What will Biden do?
If the lawsuit is not filed before election day and Biden wins, the president-elect will have the right to ask the Justice Department not to go to court. Until his appointments are in place, which will be at least six to nine months late, one person said.
Weisser and the State of New York Chief Law Officer Among those seen as potential nominees for the Biden Justice Department is Tish James, who could eventually take credit for the Google lawsuit.
Biden also did not spell tech and his opinion Distrust Some progressive Democrats fear that Biden relies on former Obama administration anti-trust executives, who largely refused to take action against Silicon Valley giants like Google, which emerged unscathed in 2013 after a two-year investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.
That means some anti-trust hawks will instead sue Biden as a proven witness.
Google supports the antitrust claim, but is not involved, “said Matt Stoller, director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project.” You want Biden to kill the case, “said Matt Stoller, director of research at the American Economic Liberty Project The decision should not be made. “Investigation.
Doubts about Trump and Bar
Two other individuals in the Justice Department’s career have also expressed concern about filing a near-election complaint, with Trump repeatedly focusing on alleged biased partisan bias by tech giants, two other individuals said.
D.R.J. Career workers are also wary of the alleged politicization of other distrust checks by the bar. Earlier this year, career anti-trust employee John Elias testified before the House Judiciary Panel that the bar had ordered an investigation into the 10 marijuana merger because of animosity towards the industry. The DOJ’s Internal Misconduct Office found that the bar’s request did not violate the agency’s rules, although Elias and at least one other employee expressed their concerns about the attorney general to the department’s inspector general.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department moved dozens of plaintiffs to the Google case out of less time sensitivity than other cases. At one point, between 30 and 40 DOJ staff were involved in the investigation and helping with interviews and document requests, according to two people close to the investigation. Later in the summer, the department dropped that team to about 20, while others switched to previous work.
