The U.S. Justice Department recently signaled it was exploring possibleantitrust probe into GoogleandApple . conduce those investigations — assuming they in reality happen — would be none other than Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim , a former lobbyist that presidential hopeful and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warrensays should recuse himselfdue to his history with both troupe .
In aletter to Delrahim , Warren notes Google paid Delrahim about $ 100,000 in 2007 to lobby federal antimonopoly officials for the companionship ’s acquisition of DoubleClick Inc , an online ad company . That lance paid off , as it eventually culminated in a $ 3.1 billion uniting . As for Delrahim ’s linkup to Apple , Warren take down he also buttonhole on behalf of the Cupertino giant regarding patent reforms . The letter further emphasizes that Delrahim worked as a embodied lobbyist until 2016 , and count Anthem , Pfizer , Qualcomm , and Caesars among his clients .
“ Your past work as a lobbyist for two of the largest and most scrutinized technical school companies in the world create the appearance of difference of involvement , ” writes Warren . “ As the head of the antitrust class at the DOJ , you should not be supervise investigations into former clients who paid you 10 of M of dollars to buttonhole the Union governing . ”
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Warren also commit a similarly wordedletterto DOJ ethics functionary , root on Delrahim ’s recusation . She also asked for a response from both Delrahim and the DOJ by June 14 .
While Big Tech has been under greater overall scrutiny in Washington , it ’s fair to say Warren deserves some of the recognition for pushing the issue into the national political conversation . Back in March , the Democratic presidential candidateproposed a planto break up Amazon , Google , and Facebook at a rally in New York . On the issue of lobbying , Warren alsointroduced a billin 2018 that would prohibit embodied lobbyists like Delrahim from taking political science positions for six years .
Meanwhile , potential antimonopoly probe of the technical school giant are gain ground steam . While the DOJ has claimed legal power over Apple and Google , the Federal Trade Commission called dibs onFacebookandAmazon . Meanwhile , the House Judiciary Committeeannouncedit ’s launching an all - out antitrust probe into the tech industry , and it ’s reserve its first earshot on the effect today .
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