Alphabet Inc.’s Google told a federal court Thursday that it should be allowed to interview the Justice Department’s top antitrust official under oath, alleging his “deep-seated bias” against the company led the federal government to sue it for antitrust violations.

Before becoming assistant attorney general for antitrust in November 2021, Jonathan Kanter represented a number of ad tech companies and Google rivals, the search giant said. That included Magnite Inc., OpenX Ltd., Roku Inc., News Corp., and the News Media Alliance, a trade association representing more than 2,000 news publishers including the New York Times, Gannett Co., Axel Springer SE and others. Google alleged that those companies paid Kanter millions of dollars to advocate for bringing antitrust cases against it.

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Google Alleges ‘Deep-Seated Bias’ by DOJ Top Antitrust Official