Judge says DOJ antitrust lead lawyer isn't biased against Google

Google is coming up on its fourth day in court with the DOJ over antitrust allegations in the department’s recently filed lawsuit, and it claims that the department’s lead lawyer, Jonathan Kanter, is biased against the company.

But the judge who’s overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, isn’t biting. Brinkema essentially rejected Google’s claim. Calling it a “red herring defense” and saying Google needs to focus on whether or not its ads platforms is anti-competitive. Google’s most recent method for defense follows along with its beliefs that the case is without merit. In the past Google said the lawsuit was deeply flawed.

And it seems Google claiming DOJ lawyer Jonathan Kanter is biased is part of that argument. In its Thursday hearing, it was revealed that Google allegedly tried to hide evidence of its antitrust violations. Evidence presented by Kenneth Dintzer alleged Google also trained employees to avoid the use of certain words and phrases that make them sound like monopolists. In attempts to obscure any proof that Google was operating an illegal monopoly. It was also alleged that Google had commonly told employees to use its internal chat tool with history off.

Google failed to provide documents to the DOJ

Google having its claims rejected that the DOJ is biased isn’t the only new development from the most recent hearing. Brinkema also notes that Google seems to have failed to provide “millions of documents” to the court regarding this case. According to Brinkema, Google needs to get the case more focused.

As Google was “well past the deadline” in handing the documents over. Remarks from Brinkema lead to potentially further challenges for Google as the case continues. The case is expected to last around 10 or so weeks. But it’s entirely possible that it could end up being shorter or longer. Regardless of the length of the case Google is most certainly facing some difficulties.