Trump Campaign Criticizes Kamala Harris’ Ties to Google Lawyer Karen Dunn

The Trump campaign says Vice President Kamala Harris’ close ties to a powerful lawyer representing Google in upcoming federal antitrust proceedings constitute an obvious “conflict of interest.”

The Trump campaign sharply criticized Harris just days after The Post reported on her close ties to the high-profile law firm Paul Weiss and its lead attorney, Karen Dunn, who is playing a leading role on Google’s outside defense team in the Biden-Harris Justice Department case involving the company’s digital advertising business.

Google’s trial is scheduled to begin Monday — just one day before the pivotal presidential debate in which Harris and Trump are set to face off.

Dunn reportedly assisted Harris with debate preparations and helped develop her policy agenda ahead of the 2024 election.

“Kamala Harris will never stand up to Big Tech because she’s being coached on what to say in debates by Google’s chief legal officer,” Trump campaign senior adviser Tim Murtaugh told Fox News. “Think about how outrageous that is — their administration is suing Google, but Harris is taking political advice from the defendant’s lawyer.”

“Any first-year law student knows that’s a conflict of interest,” Murtaugh said in an Aug. 26 interview. “But that’s not surprising because Big Tech and the Biden-Harris White House have conspired to censor and trample the rights of law-abiding citizens since they took power.”

The Post has reached out to the Harris and Paul Weiss campaigns for comment.

Google is facing the potential disintegration of its empire after a federal judge ruled last month that the company is a “monopolist” that illegally dominates the online search market.

The federal authorities want a similar solution for digital advertising.

Google’s defense got off to a rocky start last week when a federal judge overseeing a non-jury trial called the company’s automatic deletion of employee chat records “a clear abuse of power.”

Some antitrust watchdogs have expressed concerns that tech-friendly advisers around Harris may be working behind the scenes to seek lenient treatment for Google and other big tech companies that have been targeted by antitrust regulators.

“Karen Dunn is being paid handsomely by Google to avoid liability — preferably through a soft settlement — so it’s concerning that she has so much access to Vice President Harris … and their teams,” a veteran Capitol Hill official, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter, told The Post last month.

In addition to Dunn, Brad Karp, chairman of Paul Weiss, is reportedly leading a “Lawyers’ Committee for Kamala Harris” effort to raise money for her campaign.

Other Harris advisers who have come under scrutiny include former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and her brother-in-law and Uber’s general counsel, Tony West, all of whom are seen as Silicon Valley allies.

If elected president, Harris would have broad authority to appoint officials at the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission.

Harris has boasted about controversial plans to lower grocery prices and housing costs, but has not yet clarified her stance on Big Tech monopolies.

Meanwhile, Trump has publicly criticized Google several times during his campaign, most notably accusing the search giant of concealing information about the failed assassination attempt he survived in July.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee has demanded that Google answer why the company’s search engine skipped its typical “autocomplete” suggested results when a message about the July 13 shooting appeared in the search bar.

Google has denied that the omissions were due to censorship and said predictive queries were subject to “built-in protections related to political violence” that became outdated in the days after the shooting.

The Trump Justice Department first brought antitrust proceedings against Google’s search engine monopoly in 2020.