Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah plans to ask the Federal Trade Commission to explain the nature of meetings it held with Google brass while the commission was investigating allegations that the Internet search engine giant was inhibiting competition on the Web,
The Wall Street Journal reported.
Lee may then expand the inquiry into meetings and a flurry of discussions the White House held with Google and the FTC.
Google has insisted that the meetings it held at the White House "were not to discuss the antitrust investigation," according to the Journal.
A White House spokesman said that the FTC is independent of political suasion, and that it was not out of the ordinary for White House staffers to meet with business leaders.
The FTC also has said it routinely met with the managers of companies under review. FTC spokesman Justin Cole said "enforcement decisions are driven by the applicable law and evidence in each case."
Lee, chairman of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights of the Judiciary Committee, is also looking into how the commission came to accidentally release a confidential staff report in responding to a Freedom of Information Act request.
That report recommended against suing Google's over its search-engine business, but advocated filing an antitrust case against Google on three other antitrust issues under review, the Journal reported.
The conservative senator is an advocate of tighter regulation of Google.
Lee was also scheduled to be taking part Tuesday in a
Palo Alto, California, fundraising event co-sponsored by Google's political action committee, according to the Journal.
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