Alphabet Inc.’s Google is poised to dodge court sanctions after it was called out by the Justice Department for hiding documents from government lawyers.
A federal judge said Friday he didn’t have clear authority to punish the company over its policy that employees copy company lawyers on emails when discussing competition issues, which the U.S. government claims Google uses as a ploy to avoid disclosing records in litigation.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington said the volume of 140,000 so-called “silent attorney” emails the government said Google tried to withhold is “stunning.” But Google’s recent move to produce 9,000 such emails after taking a another look “reflects diligence,” the judge said.
Kenneth Dintzer, the Justice Department’s lawyer, argued that sanctioning Google is necessary to send a message to corporations that maintaining such “pervasive” practices that create roadblocks in litigation. He asked the court to order Google to produce 21,000 emails that have a “false claim of privilege.”
Read More: Google Disputes DOJ Claim It Hid Documents in Lawyer Emails
The emails were “solely business communication” to keep lawyers in the loop as products and services were developed, said Google’s attorney, John Schmidtlein.
Saying the company has acted in good faith, the lawyer said there could have been “mistakes” made by the legal team that reviewed emails.
Mehta didn’t issue a ruling during the hearing.
“As eyebrow-raising as the practice may be, I just don’t know what I can do about it,” in terms of sanctions, Mehta said.
The fight over withheld emails began when the department said in court filing last month that Google’s employees were trained to routinely add in-house counsel to business communications, affix privilege labels, and include “pretextual” requests for legal advice when no advice was actually needed.
Google was sued by the Trump administration for allegedly striking exclusive distribution deals with wireless carriers and phone makers to limit competition to grow its search business.
A group of state attorneys general led by Texas subsequently filed a separate antitrust complaint claiming Google’s digital ad business is a monopoly.
