SCIENCE & TECH: ‘Trying to storm the castle’

High-powered lawyers representing Big Tech clients have co-hosted a series of blue-chip fundraisers for Kamala Harris’s campaign as the 2024 presidential election draws near – and antitrust watchdogs are crying foul.

Last Thursday, a group of “antitrust lawyers and economists for Harris” held a virtual fundraiser featuring an appearance by former US Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta. Ticket prices ranged as high as $6,600, according to a copy of an invitation obtained by The Post.

Notable co-hosts included Daniel Bitton, a partner at San Francisco-based law firm Axinn who is defending Google in the Biden-Harris DOJ’s lawsuit targeting its alleged monopoly over digital advertising

Other co-chairs included Renata Hesse, who once downplayed concerns about Google’s monopoly over online search; Edith Ramirez, a former Democratic FTC chair who once defended Google-owned YouTube in a class-action suit over kids’ privacy; and Ethan Glass, who has repped clients like JetBlue against US antitrust complaints.

“This is a confab of ‘Big Law’ lawyers who have been representing monopolists against the FTC and DOJ, and they are shamelessly trying to storm the castle after being locked out during the Biden years,” one Democrat who pays attention to antitrust issues told The Post.

The Post reached out to the Harris campaign, Bitton, Hesse, Ramirez and Glass for comment but did not hear back.

Earlier this month, The Post reported on conflict-of-interest concerns that arose after several key members of Google’s legal team co-hosted an Oct. 18 fundraiser for Harris in Washington, DC – with tickets costing as much as $50,000.

Karen Dunn, a top litigator at white-shoe law firm Paul Weiss who infamously led Harris’s final debate prep against Trump on the same day that she delivered Google’s opening defense in the digital advertising trial, was listed as a co-chair.

Dunn’s colleagues Jeannie Rhee and Bill Isaacson also attended the event, which featured appearances by former US Attorney General Eric Holder, Uber general counsel and Harris’s brother-in-law Tony West and ex-acting Attorney General Sally Yates.

Just one day later, longtime Amazon general counsel David Zapolsky co-hosted a fundraiser alongside key Harris campaign surrogate and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by The Post.

In California, Newsom recently vetoed an AI safety bill that had been vigorously lobbied against by tech venture firm Andreessen Horowitz and trade groups representing Google and Meta. After initially opposing the bill, Amazon-backed AI firm Anthropic expressed tepid support for the bill after securing changes.

The offensive is playing out as Big Tech firms weather an unprecedented wave of antitrust litigation.

Apple and Google are in the midst of historic Justice Department antitrust cases, while Amazon and Facebook are currently being sued by the Federal Trade Commission. AI leaders like chip supplier Nvidia and OpenAI also have the attention of regulators.

“It should be deeply concerning to anyone, Republican or Democrat, that cares about reining in Big Tech monopolies, that (Harris’s campaign) continues to do fundraisers with lawyers for Google and other Big Tech companies,” public affairs executive Garrett Ventry said.

Top regulators appointed by the Biden-Harris administration, including FTC Chair Lina Khan and SEC chair Gary Gensler, have faced sharp pushback from Silicon Valley bigwigs for leading a crackdown on prominent firms active in the artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency sectors.

In July, billionaire Reid Hoffman sparked outrage among progressives when he accused Khan of “waging war on American business” and openly calling on Harris to fire her if she is elected. Other Democratic advocates, including Mark Cuban, have called for Gensler to be forced out.

The backlash has contributed to a surprising shift in Silicon Valley support toward Trump – most notably in the form of Elon Musk, who recently declared himself “dark MAGA” and contributed millions to his campaign.

The Harris campaign has made clear efforts to reassure Silicon Valley, a longtime source of support and major donations for Democrats.

Key Harris surrogates like Cuban and West have made the case in public and behind closed doors that she would take a friendlier stance toward corporate interests if she is elected.

Cuban, when asked by The Post if he had a sense of how a Harris administration would handle Big Tech antitrust matters, replied, “I don’t.”

Last week, the Washington Post reported that West and ex-Treasury official Brian Nelson have been telling groups of tech executives that they are in “listening mode” during private outreach meetings on Harris’s behalf.

Andreesen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz, who previously expressed support for Trump, reversed course last month by pledging a “significant” donation to Harris. Horowitz said he “had several conversations with Vice President Harris and her team on their likely tech policies and am encouraged by my belief in her.”

In September, Harris released an economic policy outline that provided arguably the most substantive look at the policies she would pursue in the office.

The 82-page document said a Harris administration would “encourage innovative technologies like AI and digital assets while protecting our consumers and investors” – but referenced the word “antitrust just one time.”     

Some anti-monopoly watchdogs previously warned that corporate-friendly advisers in Harris’s orbit could lobby behind the scenes for leniency toward Google – potentially in the form of a “slap on the wrist settlement” rather than the full-fledged breakup sought by the feds.

In August, the DOJ won a historic victory after Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google was a “monopolist” with an illegal stranglehold over the online search market. He is expected to decide on remedies by next summer – and the feds have floated a forced selloff of Google’s Android software or Chrome browser as potential fixes.

Meanwhile, closing arguments in the DOJ’s digital advertising antitrust case are expected to wrap up in November. Google boss Sundar Pichai has admitted that he expects the company to be entangled in antitrust litigation and appeals for “many years.”