Donald Trump said Friday he will “request prosecution” of Google – part of one of the world’s largest companies – when he returns to office, complaining that it is only publishing “bad stories” about him.
Trump, who has long criticized big tech companies, posted the threat on his Truth Social site, where he also accused the country of promoting only positive stories about his rival Kamala Harris.
He offered no further evidence to support his claims.
“Google has been determined to have illegally used a system that only reveals and displays bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some fabricated for this purpose, while at the same time only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris,” Trump wrote. . .
‘This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY and hopefully the Department of Justice will criminally prosecute them for this blatant election interference. If not, and subject to the laws of our country, I will seek his prosecution, at the highest level, when I win the election and become President of the United States.
Although the Justice Department falls under the executive branch, decisions about whether to prosecute corporations for alleged criminal activity are generally left to career prosecutors.
On a roll: Donald Trump accused Google of only ‘showing bad stories about Donald J. Trump’ and called for the company to face criminal prosecution
Trump ally Elon Musk, who is finally backing his effort and boosted it with an interview on his X platform, accused Google of imposing a search ban on Trump after the July assassination attempt.
Musk wrote a post with an image of a search box for “President Donald.” The results, provided by an autocomplete function, returned “Donald Duck” and “President Donald Regan,” but not Trump. The firm called it an anomaly.
‘Wow, Google has a search ban on President Donald Trump! Electoral interference? wrote musk.
The autocomplete feature currently shows Trump’s name.
Google, which accounts for the majority of its parent company Alphabet’s revenue, has denied manipulating its search results to help any political candidate.
Donald Trump said the company “has illegally used a system that only reveals and displays bad stories about Donald J. Trump” on a day when he attacked his rival Kamala Harris during a rally in Michigan.
Google denies manipulating its search to help a candidate
Trump’s threat to go after Google follows another threat earlier this month to prosecute people who “scammed” or engaged in “unscrupulous behavior” in the November election.
He accused Democrats of “rampant cheating and deceit” and warned, “when I win, the people who cheated will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
His promises to prosecute rivals or companies seen as working against him come in a race in which Trump’s Democratic rivals have flagged his comments justifying “revenge” and calling for retaliation against his political opponents.
Trump has also repeatedly criticized federal, state and local prosecutors who have attacked him. If elected, he would have the authority to close special prosecutor Jack Smith’s prosecution in connection with Jan. 6.
Trump’s post comes a week after New York Times published about a series of efforts by Trump to seek federal prosecutions or investigations of political rivals ranging from former FBI Director James Comey to former Secretary of State John Kerry.