In a Wednesday letter to Google and YouTube executives, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) raised concerns about how the settlement came about amid ongoing antitrust litigation.
YouTube, which is owned by Google, agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle the lawsuit late last month, with $22 million going toward Trump. The president has directed that the funds be used for the construction of the White House State Ballroom.
The senators underscored that the U.S. government has antitrust cases pending against Google.
Shortly after a federal judge declined to order a breakup of the search giant in early September, Google CEO Sundar Pichai joined Trump for a dinner at the White House with other tech leaders, where he touted “constructive dialogue” with the administration.
“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 senators wrote Wednesday.
“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,” they continued.
Check out the full report at TheHill.com.
