Salem, Oregon – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have joined some of their Democratic colleagues in asking Google and YouTube questions regarding the $22 million settlement agreed with President Donald Trump. The legislators are wondering if the agreement was part of a larger deal in which the Trump administration agreed to handle Google’s antitrust case in exchange for something else.
The senators wrote to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan expressing that they had concerns that YouTube’s deal with Trump might have been meant to affect the Justice Department’s ongoing antitrust case against the internet giant. They said that if the settlement was made to get on the good side of the government, it could break federal rules against bribery.
Trump sued YouTube as a private citizen, saying that the company broke the law by censoring him when it banned his account after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Most legal experts thought the case had little basis, yet YouTube chose to pay $22 million to resolve it. Some are questioning the timing of the transaction because it comes at a time when Google is waiting for a final decision in a big federal antitrust case that Trump’s own Justice Department started.
The senators said that a federal judge recently made a decision in the monopoly case that was mostly good for Google. They called it “close to a best-case scenario.” Just a few days later, Trump talked about Google in public while entertaining tech leaders at the White House. Pichai thanked the government for what he called “constructive dialogue.” YouTube quickly finished the settlement, which raised even more red flags.
Wyden, Merkley, and other colleagues argued that the order of events makes it look like the settlement and the administration’s decisions about whether to fight the antitrust finding might have been planned together. They said that the public has a right to know everything about the talks between Google and Trump officials and whether the YouTube settlement had anything to do with the government’s plans to take action against the company.
The same group of lawmakers had earlier warned in August that private deals that helped Trump personally in exchange for less strict rules could break ethics and bribery laws. Their most recent letter asks Google and YouTube for specific replies to help with future work on enforcing antitrust laws and protecting against corruption.
Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts all signed the letter. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon also signed it.
The full letter is here.
