Wyden, Merkley, Colleagues Question YouTube, Google on Potential Quid-Pro-Quo Settlement With Trump Administration
Senators sound alarm after YouTube settled Trump lawsuit in the midst of antitrust lawsuit by DOJ
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley said today they have joined Senate colleagues to demand answers from Google and YouTube regarding whether Google’s recent $22 million settlement with Donald Trump represented a quid-pro-quo agreement in exchange for favors from his administration.
“If …YouTube settled President Trump’s legally dubious lawsuit to discourage the President’s Justice Department from appealing a ruling favorable to Google, the company and its executives may have run afoul of the law,” the lawmakers warned in their letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan.
Trump, in his capacity as a private citizen, sued YouTube — alleging that YouTube engaged in unlawful censorship when it banned him from its platform following the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Legal experts have characterized the lawsuit as “likely doomed from the start.” YouTube nevertheless settled the lawsuit for $22 million last month, while its parent company, Google, is in the midst of an antitrust lawsuit brought by Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) — raising questions about a potential quid-pro-quo agreement involving the settlement.
The senators are sounding the alarm following a concerning pattern of events surrounding the settlement and its potential tie to the Trump administration’s antitrust litigation against Google.
On September 2, a federal judge handed down a favorable antitrust penalties ruling for Google in the online search monopoly case, ordering remedies that have been characterized as “almost a best-case scenario” for the company. The Trump administration’s DOJ will decide whether to appeal after entry of the final judgment. Just two days after the favorable ruling, Trump referenced Google’s case while hosting Google and other Big Tech executives at the White House. In response, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said: “appreciate that your administration had a constructive dialogue, and we were able to get it to some resolution.” And on September 29, YouTube agreed to settle Trump’s dubious lawsuit, with $22 million flowing to Trump’s new luxury White House ballroom.
“The public deserves to know what ‘constructive dialogue’ the Trump administration and Google had, given that Google and the Trump administration are opposing parties in the antitrust case, and whether this dialogue was in any way connected to YouTube’s settlement with President Trump,” the lawmakers wrote. “Specifically, the public deserves to know whether YouTube’s settlement will influence the Trump Justice Department’s decision regarding whether to appeal and seek the stricter remedies DOJ had originally sought against Google.”
In August, the lawmakers warned that a settlement in exchange for favorable action by the administration in other matters, could violate federal anti-bribery laws and related state laws. Now, the senators are asking Google and YouTube a series of questions in order to inform their legislative activity regarding antitrust matters, government ethics, and anti-corruption laws — including legislation to crack down on the risk of quid-pro-quo arrangements between Trump and private companies that donate to organizations benefitting Trump.
In addition to Big Tech companies, media companies have also agreed to deals to settle lawsuits brought by Trump, including ABC News’ $15 million deal and Paramount’s agreement to pay $16 million to his future presidential library, after which the Trump administration approved Paramount and Skydance’s multi-billion-dollar merger.
The letter was led by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. In addition to Wyden and Merkley, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
The full letter is here.
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