DOJ finally posted that “embarrassing” court doc Google wanted to hide

Ars Technica: “The US Department of Justice has finally posted what Judge Amit Mehta described at the Google search antitrust trial as an “embarrassing” exhibit that Google tried to hide from the public. The document in question contains meeting notes that Google’s vice president for finance, Michael Roszak, “created for a course on communications,” Bloomberg reported. In his notes, Roszak wrote that Google’s search advertising “is one of the world’s greatest business models ever created” with economics that only certain “illicit businesses” selling “cigarettes or drugs” “could rival.”

 At trial, Roszak told the court that he didn’t recall if he ever gave the presentation. He said that the course required that he tell students “things I don’t believe as part of the presentation.” He also claimed that the notes were “full of hyperbole and exaggeration” and did not reflect his true beliefs, “because there was no business purpose associated with it.” According to Bloomberg, Google repeatedly objected to the document being shared in court, claiming it was irrelevant to the DOJ’s case.

 Then, after Mehta allowed the DOJ to present the document as evidence, Google tried to seal off Roszak’s testimony on the document, which Mehta granted, but later said that Google’s request put him “in a pickle.” “This doesn’t contain anything confidential,” Mehta told Google. “I understand it’s somewhat embarrassing for the witness.”