Warren Calls on Assistant AG Delrahim to Recuse Himself from Google & Apple Probes

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

GoLocalWorcester Business Team

Elizabeth Warren

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling on Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim to “recuse himself” from Department of Justice antitrust probes of Google and Apple.

Warren asserts Delrahim’s prior lobbying work for Google and Apple pose a conflict of interest concerns.

In a letter, Warren wrote, "Your past work as a lobbyist for two of the largest and most scrutinized tech companies in the world creates the appearance of a conflict of interest. As the head of the antitrust division at the DOJ, you should not be supervising investigations into former clients who paid you tens of thousands of dollars to lobby the federal government."

Read the Letter Here

Conflict of Interest

While the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission share authority to enforce federal antitrust laws, reports emerged on May 31 that the two agencies had come to an agreement that the DOJ would have jurisdiction over potential anticompetitive conduct by Google, and that the agency was "preparing to open an antitrust investigation" into the company.

Further reports early last week indicated that the DOJ will also have jurisdiction over Apple.

As the head of the DOJ's Antitrust Division, Delrahim is in a position to supervise these investigations.

In her letter, Warren raised concerns about Delrahim's supervision of these investigations given his previous work as a lobbyist for Google and Apple.

In 2007, Google paid Delrahim to lobby federal antitrust officials on behalf of the company's proposed acquisition of online advertising company DoubleClick Inc., a $3.1 billion merger that the government eventually approved.

Delrahim reported an estimated $100,000 in income from Google in 2007.

In both 2006 and 2007, Delrahim was hired by Apple to lobby the federal government on its behalf on patent reform issues; his work as a corporate lobbyist continued into 2016 with clients that included Anthem, Pfizer, Qualcomm, and Caesars.

Citing federal ethics law requiring individuals to recuse themselves from any “particular matter involving specific parties,” Warren called on Delrahim to recuse himself from the DOJ's reported investigations into Google and Apple.

Warren requested that the DOJ's designated agency ethics official provide information on how the Department is addressing Delrahim's conflicts, as well as a copy of Delrahim's ethics agreements, by June 14, 2019.

She also asked Delrahim to respond by the same date with information on whether he is considering recusal and who he is consulting about that decision.