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☆ Jury in Federal Lawsuit Deadlocks on Abu Ghraib Torture Allegations
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-02 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A federal jury in Virginia said on Thursday that it was unable to reach a verdict in a lawsuit filed by three Iraqi men who said they were tortured while being held by the United States at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison two decades ago. The jurors had deliberated for almost eight days, and with the panel still deadlocked the judge in the case, Leonie M. Brinkema of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, declared a mistrial on Thursday. The three plaintiffs had sued a defense contractor, CACI Premier Technology, asserting that CACI employees working as interrogators at the prison directed U.S. military guards to abuse the men in an effort to “soften” them up. The testimony of the three men last month was the first time a civilian jury had heard allegations of post-9/11 abuses directly from detainees.

Persons: Abu, Leonie M Organizations: U.S, CACI Premier Technology Locations: Virginia, United States, Alexandria

☆ DOJ antitrust case targeting Google’s ad-tech business will go to trial in September, federal judge rules
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Washington CNN —A blockbuster lawsuit by the US government against Google’s ad business will go to trial in September, according to a federal judge. The case regarding Google’s advertising technology is the first antitrust suit against a Big Tech company brought by the Biden administration, which has pledged to vigorously enforce the nation’s competition laws, particularly in the tech sector. It follows a multi-week trial last fall that challenged Google’s prime position as the default search engine on millions of devices. The search case was first filed by the Justice Department during the Trump administration. Closing arguments in the Google search case are expected to take place in the spring.

Persons: Washington CNN —, Leonie Brinkema, Biden, Trump Organizations: Washington CNN, Court, Eastern, of, Big Tech, DOJ, Google, Justice Department Locations: of Virginia

Yelp (YELP.N) and News/Media Alliance, which are not defendants in the litigation but are targets of Google's subpoenas, argue that law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison should be disqualified. A spokesperson for Paul Weiss said the "firm's representation of Google is appropriate in all respects." Yelp said it hired Paul Weiss in 2016 for counsel on antitrust issues. The Justice Department's antitrust head, Jonathan Kanter, was on the Paul Weiss team representing Yelp. New York-based Paul Weiss, which has about 1,000 lawyers globally, is also representing Amazon.com in various antitrust lawsuits.

Persons: Gonzalo Fuentes, Paul, Weiss, Garrison, Leonie Brinkema, Paul Weiss, Yelp, Jonathan Kanter, Charles Molster III, Brandon Kressin, Brinkema, Kanter, Mike Scarcella, Leigh Jones, Rami Ayyub Organizations: Google, Viva Technology, Porte de, REUTERS, Media Alliance, Yelp, U.S, Google LLC, Eastern, of, Thomson Locations: Porte, Paris, France, U.S, Rifkind, Wharton, New York, States, of Virginia

A Google logo is seen at the Google offices in the Chelsea section of New York City, U.S., January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton//File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Alphabet Inc FollowARLINGTON, Virginia Sept 15 (Reuters) - U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema on Friday declined to order a Justice Department official to stay out of the government's advertising antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google but said the department "should think about it." In November 2021, Google asked the Justice Department to consider requiring Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general in charge of antitrust, to recuse himself because of his work for a long list of Google critics. The Justice Department filed the advertising lawsuit in January in Arlington, Virginia, along with eight states, and nine other states joined in April. While Brinkema declined to order Kanter recused, she seemed skeptical during a court hearing that he should be involved and added that the Justice Department should "use some wisdom" in deciding what to do.

Persons: Shannon Stapleton, Leonie Brinkema, Jonathan Kanter, Brinkema, Kanter, David Shepardson, Diane Bartz, Timothy Gardner Organizations: REUTERS, Justice Department, Alphabet's, Google, D.C, Thomson Locations: Chelsea, New York City, U.S, ARLINGTON , Virginia, Arlington , Virginia, Washington, United States

☆ Google targets DOJ antitrust chief with bias allegations in monopoly defense
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Google went on the offensive Thursday in a closely watched antitrust case dealing with the tech giant’s digital advertising dominance, questioning the motives of the Justice Department’s top antitrust official. Google’s filing targets Jonathan Kanter, the US assistant attorney general for antitrust, and his widely reported past legal representation of Google-parent Alphabet’s corporate rivals, such as Microsoft, Yelp and News Corp, among others. Google’s attorneys argue that Kanter’s past clients create an ethical conflict and should raise doubts about the US government’s overall lawsuit. They also cited evidence in the case that, prior to joining DOJ, Kanter lobbied in a personal capacity for the agency to pursue an antitrust case against Google. The Biden administration has sought to limit the scope of discovery to prevent Google from gathering evidence about Kanter’s advocacy, according to Thursday’s filing.

Persons: Jonathan Kanter, Kanter, AAG Kanter, Susan Athey, Athey, Biden, Trump, Leonie Brinkema, Judge Brinkema Organizations: CNN, Google, Microsoft, News Corp, DOJ, Justice, Stanford, Court, Eastern, of, US Locations: Alexandria , Virginia, United States, of Virginia, Manhattan, Virginia

WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge on Friday denied Google's motion to dismiss a Department of Justice antitrust case focused on advertising technology. "I'm going to deny the defendant's motion to dismiss," Judge Leonie Brinkema said in a federal court in Virginia. It also said that the government's estimate of Google's ad exchange as having "more than 50%" of the market fell short of the 70% needed to allege market power. Google's motion is the company's latest effort to end costly, time-consuming antitrust lawsuits. It also asked a federal court in Washington to dismiss claims in a 2020 lawsuit filed by the government.

☆ Google Loses Bid to Escape DOJ’s Digital-Ad Antitrust Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Jan Wolfe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The case is one of two Justice Department antitrust lawsuits against Google. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg NewsAlphabet Inc.’s Google lost an early bid to escape a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit that seeks to break up the company’s business brokering digital advertising across much of the internet. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema denied Google’s request to dismiss the case, finding that the Justice Department’s complaint filed in January was sufficiently detailed to proceed.

WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) asked a U.S. federal judge on Monday to dismiss a Justice Department lawsuit alleging that the search giant illegally abused its dominance of online advertising. The government, which filed the ad tech lawsuit in January along with eight states, had argued that Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite. It also said that the government's estimate of Google's ad exchange as having "more than 50%" of the market fell short of the 70% needed to allege market power. The company also said the government was wrong to assert that Google's acquisitions of DoubleClick and AdMeld, both more than 10 years ago, harmed competition. The Justice Department's ad tech lawsuit follows a separate lawsuit filed in 2020, at the end of the Trump administration, that accused Google of violating antitrust law to maintain its dominance in search.

Companies Google Inc FollowAlphabet Inc FollowMarch 24 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday set a fast-paced schedule in the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit challenging Google LLC's digital advertising technology practices, moving the case along more quickly than either side had proposed. A Justice Department spokesperson and a representative from Google had no comment on Friday. The Justice Department and eight states filed the case in January, seeking to force Google to sell its ad manager suite, claiming that the company unlawfully curbed competition over advertising technology. The case is one of two Justice Department antitrust actions against Google. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, assigned to the digital advertising case, will preside at the January pretrial conference.

Companies Alphabet Inc FollowALEXANDRIA, Virginia, March 10 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge said on Friday that a Justice Department lawsuit against Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google regarding its dominance of advertising technology would remain in Virginia, rejecting Google's bid to move it to New York. "I am going to rule against you," Judge Leonie Brinkema told an attorney for Google. Google has denied any wrongdoing in running its ad tech business. Eric Mahr, an attorney for Google, argued that there was a risk of an inconsistent judgment if the case were not moved to New York. Wood also said there were "meaningful differences" between the Justice Department's case and many of the New York cases.

☆ U.S. Justice Dept opposes Google bid to move advertising antitrust case to New York
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Mike Scarcella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The case, alleging anticompetitive abuses of advertising technology, was filed in January in Alexandria, Virginia, federal court and threatens to break up a key part of Google's business. But moving the case to the Southern District of New York won't eliminate the chance of divergent trial judgments or appellate decisions, the DOJ's lawyers said. The cases consolidated in New York can return to their originating district courts for trial, the government told Brinkema. In its bid seeking to get the DOJ case to New York, Google's lawyers said the government's "case lags far behind other pending ad tech antitrust cases" and "adds nothing of substance to those earlier-filed cases." The case is United States et al v. Google LLC, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, 1:23-cv-00108-LMB-IDD.

Google said the new DOJ case, filed jointly with eight states last month, which also alleges advertising-related abuses, overlaps with multidistrict litigation in New York that formed in 2021. Google has disputed the claims in the new lawsuit, saying it "duplicates an unfounded" one that Texas filed and now is part of the New York litigation. "They just want DOJ versus Google, nobody else," Vladeck said. Fox also said there is a new federal law that gives state plaintiffs their preference for venue in antitrust litigation. The case is In re Google Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 1:21-md-03010-PKC.

☆ The DOJ's antitrust case against Google is ambitious but risky
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

But alongside the possibility of great reward comes significant risk in seeking to push the boundaries of antitrust law. "All antitrust cases are an uphill battle for plaintiffs, thanks to 40 years of case law," said Rebecca Haw Allensworth, an antitrust professor at Vanderbilt Law School. But, Allensworth added, the government's challenges may be different than those in many other antitrust cases. Like all antitrust cases, this one is unlikely to be concluded anytime soon. "This is clearly the blockbuster case so far from the DOJ antitrust division," Francis said.

[1/2] A Google LLC logo is seen at the Google offices in the Chelsea section of New York City, U.S., January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Shannon StapletonCompanies Google Inc FollowAlphabet Inc FollowWASHINGTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, one of the judges who stayed then-President Donald Trump's executive order restricting immigration into the United States, has been named to oversee the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google over its alleged abuse of dominance in online advertising technology. read moreAccording to a filing to the docket late Tuesday, Brinkema, 78 and whose court is in Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, was assigned to oversee the case. It is the second antitrust lawsuit filed by the department, with the first coming near the end of the Trump administration in 2020. In addition to putting a stay on Trump's executive order, Brinkema, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton, also oversaw the trial of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, who is now in a maximum security prison in Colorado.

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