Former Google, Amazon Operative Slated to Lead Biden DOJ Antitrust Division
Richard Moorhead
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The Biden administration is actively considering a career operative of Google and Amazon to lead the Department of Justice antitrust division, The Intercept reported on Friday.
Renata Hesse previously worked in the DOJ’s Antitrust Division during the Obama administration.
Renata Hesse has led the Antitrust Division before so this is Biden's signal to the left that he loves recycling. Hesse has also worked for Google, Amazon, and has a long history as a Silicon Valley lawyer focused on IP law, satisfying the oligarchs. Balance. Build back better.
— Edward Ongweso Jr (@bigblackjacobin) January 15, 2021
Hesse advertises working with Amazon as an attorney to help the megacorporation avoid liability for trust monopoly action.
Hesse acted as counsel for Google during 2018 Federal Trade Commission hearings, arguing that Google maintains its monopoly share of the market for search engine queries on the basis of its product alone. Hesse ignored Google’s anti-competitive practices, such as shutting out competitors from search results.
Hesse would presumably oversee the DOJ’s Antitrust Division as it proceeds with historic antitrust litigation against Google. The corporate attorney would presumably be pressured to recuse from the case, unless she’s determined to deliver a favorable outcome for her former clients regardless of existing antitrust law.
At least one other lawyer who has litigated cases against Facebook and Google is under consideration for the Antitrust division.
Jonathan Kanter, a plaintiff's lawyer who helped design the cases against Google and Facebook, remains "in the mix" for the same job, sources indicate.
— David Dayen (@ddayen) January 15, 2021
The Antitrust Division of the DOJ is intended to hold America’s most powerful and unaccountable corporations responsible. Hesse has actively fought against such outcomes for years as a Silicon Valley-aligned attorney. Her appointment as antitrust attorney of the DOJ would indicate that Biden intends to pursue a union of the federal government with Big Tech and America’s most powerful oligarchs.
Follow me on Twitter @Wildman_AZ, on Parler @Moorhead, and on Gab @WildmanAZ.
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