Senate Democrats want to know: Was Trump’s YouTube settlement a bribe?

In a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Neil Mohan, five senators — Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Richard Blumenthal (D-MA) — asked Connecticut), and Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) — details about any settlement talks between those companies and the Trump administration. They are interested in knowing whether Google received favorable treatment as a result of the payment, including leniency in several ongoing antitrust lawsuits, something they warn could constitute illegal bribery.

The agreement between Trump and YouTube settles the lawsuit that Trump filed in 2021 after he was suspended from the platform. The matter has raised eyebrows due to its weak legal rationale (the courts have unanimously declared that social media companies can ban users) and the fact that YouTube’s parent company You will benefit greatly Who won Trump’s support?

Google recently appeared in court to determine how a judge would neutralize it Monopoly in the advertising technology sector – With the Ministry of Justice calling for a dramatic separation. The government could still choose to settle this issue with much less radical remedies. Google is also involved Antitrust litigation researchas the judge proposed more moderate remedies than the previous Biden administration had requested, and the Trump administration will be responsible for determining how difficult it will be to push the appeal.

“The public deserves to know whether the YouTube settlement will impact the Trump-era Department of Justice’s decision to appeal and seek the more stringent remedies that the Department of Justice originally sought against Google,” the letter said. If YouTube settled a “legally questionable lawsuit” to avoid these remedies, “the company and its executives may have broken the law,” she says, citing Federal anti-bribery law As well as California’s unfair competition law.

The vast majority — $22 million — of YouTube payments went to support the construction of a new White House ballroom. Trump is reportedly scheduled to hold a fundraising dinner at the hall later today. according to CBS News.

Several senators previously wrote to Google and YouTube in August, before the settlement was announced, warning them against paying for preferential treatment. As noted in this latest letter, the companies responded by saying that they “have not had any discussion linking any potential settlement of the case to any formal proceeding or to any pending or potential future matters involving Alphabet or any of its subsidiaries, and there will be no such discussions.” Lawmakers are pressing to determine whether that is the truth.

YouTube isn’t the only company to settle a bogus lawsuit against Trump. President Extracted $16 million from Paramount It also sought approval for the merger from the government. And XAnd dead It respectively paid “about $10 million” and $25 million to settle lawsuits similar to those over YouTube. Earlier this yearWarren said the Meta settlement “looks like a bribe.”