Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on President Donald Trump's nominees to lead the National Economic Council, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Housing Finance Agency, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 27, 2025.
Several Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, are asking Google and its YouTube unit whether discussions with lawyers for President Donald Trump have included the possibility of settling a censorship suit in exchange for potentially favorable treatment from the administration.
In a letter sent Thursday to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, the Democrats and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont asked the executives about conversations with Trump's lawyers over an ongoing lawsuit Trump filed more than four years ago, accusing the online video platform of unlawful censorship.
The lawsuit stemmed from the suspension of Trump's accounts on social media sites after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump filed suits against Facebook, Twitter and YouTube later that year.
The senators highlighted reports of a court filing from May indicating that lawyers representing YouTube and Trump were "engaged in productive discussions." In that filing, the two parties asked the judge to delay a June court hearing until Sept. 8.
"We are concerned about the possibility that Google could settle the lawsuit against YouTube in a quid-pro-quo arrangement to avoid full accountability for violating federal competition, consumer protection, and labor laws, circumstances that could result in the company running afoul of federal bribery laws," the letter said.