Lawyers helping Vice President Kamala Harris prepare for the debates are also defending Google against an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ), a case that government transparency advocates say poses a conflict of interest.

Karen Dunn is help Harris opened her preparations for Tuesday's debate with former President Donald Trump by saying: statement Monday during Google's trial. While there's nothing explicitly preventing Dunn from serving in both roles, experts say the campaign's decision to work with her should be cause for concern.

“Someone in the Harris campaign should Google 'conflict of interest,'” Michael Chamberlain, president of the group Defending the Public Trust, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Imagine being a Department of Justice lawyer working on this case in good faith, and then having your potential future boss hand over his campaign to someone who works for one of the Department of Justice's toughest adversaries. That's depressing.”

“The vice presidency's political world and the executive branch overlap, creating great potential for abuse of power,” Chamberlain said.

“When these connections are made to other campaigns, there is a lot of outrage,” he said.

The Justice Department's lawsuit threatens to break up the tech giant. Last month, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama appointee, said: held Page 277 Verdict Google has an illegal monopoly on search engines.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre It is called The ruling is a “victory for the American people.”

Biden-Harris Cabinet secretary claims 'punitive schedule' makes it impossible for Kamala to answer questions pic.twitter.com/CvOExXOsg8

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 9, 2024

“If this is a preview of how a future Harris administration will handle potential conflicts of interest, it will be great news for progressive special interests,” Pete McGinnis, communications director for the Functional Government Initiative, told DCNF. “The biggest losers will be the American people, who expect their government to act objectively and without bias from decision-makers with conflicts of interest.”

According to The New York Times, Dunn has helped Democratic candidates prepare for debates in every presidential election since 2008. (Related: As California's attorney general, Harris has a history of taking left-wing positions on some of the country's biggest legal issues.)

“You can't serve both sides,” Matt Stoller, research director at the Project on American Economic Freedom, told The New York Times.

“If this were a legal case, she would be ethically prohibited from doing what she is doing,” Stoller said.

Stoller told the DCNF that there is no formal ethics code governing Dunn because “the Harris campaign is a political campaign, not a lawsuit.”

Richard Painter, who served as White House ethics counsel under George W. Bush, acknowledged a “logical inconsistency” in the DCNF's ruling but explained that “helping with debate preparation is a form of volunteering for a campaign.”

“Many people and organizations volunteer and fund campaigns that do business with the federal government,” Painter said.

The Trump campaign criticized Harris in August over the potential conflict.

“Kamala Harris will never stand up to Big Tech because she's being coached by Google's top lawyer on what to say in the debates,” said Tim Murtaugh, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign. said Fox News: “Think about it: Their administration is suing Google, and Harris is taking political advice from the defense lawyers.”

Harris and Trump debate place The speech, which will be held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will be broadcast on ABC News at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

The Harris campaign and Dunn did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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