Facebook looks like it's preparing for war with Trump after hiring a top Department of Justice antitrust lawyer
Facebook
looks like it's preparing for war with Trump after hiring a top Department of
Justice antitrust lawyer
·
- The firm has
hired Kate Patchen, the chief of the Department of Justice's antitrust
division in San Francisco.
- It follows Trump saying that
his administration is "looking at" antitrust proceedings against
Google, Amazon, and Facebook.
- Facebook is also hiring a
lead counsel on competition matters in Washington.
Facebook has hired one of the top antitrust
lawyers in Silicon Valley, in a sign that the company could be preparing for
war with Donald Trump's administration.
Kate Patchen, the chief of the Department of
Justice's antitrust division in San Francisco, has joined Facebook as director
and associate general counsel of litigation.
Patchen updated her LinkedIn profile earlier
this month with the news, which was first spotted by the Financial Times. Business
Insider has contacted Patchen and Facebook for comment.
Patchen's hire comes in
the same month in which US President Trump said his administration was
"looking at" antitrust proceedings against tech giants Google, Amazon,
and Facebook.
"You look at the European Union, they fined I guess it was Google,
billions of dollars, and frankly I don't like that they're doing that because
that's an American company," Trump told Axios. "I don't think it's
good that they're doing that. But if anybody does that, it should be us doing
it."
Patchen has worked at the Department of Justice
for 14 years, during which time she has prosecuted a number of price-fixing
cartel cases in the computer memory chip industry.
Her appointment is not the only sign that
Facebook is beefing up its legal bench amid the threat of hostilities from the
White House.
Facebook is also looking to hire a lead counsel
on competition matters in Washington. In an ad on LinkedIn, it
said the successful candidate will: "Manage investigations and inquiries
related to antitrust matters and help develop the company's legal position and
strategy on competition matters throughout the world."
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