The Journal. - The Hidden Life of Google’s Secret Weapon

Episode Date: June 13, 2024

Joshua Wright was a star in the world of antitrust, from his time at the Federal Trade Commission to his work with some of the biggest tech companies. He was well respected and powerful until accusations of sexual misconduct came to light. WSJ’s Brody Mullins talks us through his reporting on Wright’s downfall. Further Reading: - The Hidden Life of Google’s Secret Weapon  - For Years, an Esteemed Law Professor Seduced Students. Was He Too Important to Fire?  - Hubris, Revenge and a Breakup Brought Down Big Tech’s Proudest Ally  Further Listening: - Elon Musk’s Unusual Relationships With Women at SpaceX  - Lewd Photos, Booze and Bullying: Inside the FDIC’s Toxic Culture  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the world of antitrust law, Joshua Wright was a star. So Joshua Wright is a guy who no one has ever heard of outside of Washington. In fact, I would say most people in Washington have not heard of him. That's our colleague Brody Mullins. But if you're in the tiny but super powerful world of the antitrust bar, working on antitrust regulations or policy, he was incredibly important. Antitrust laws protect consumers from monopolies. And as Wright rose from professor to antitrust power broker, he became one of the most influential people in the field.

Today, we're very pleased to have with us Commissioner Joshua Wright. Josh was also former research director of the International Center for Law and Economics, a law professor at George Mason University. He is a prolific writer, but also a very provocative writer. Please give a warm welcome to former Commissioner Josh Wright. He was a very influential figure, especially among conservatives in that tiny antitrust world, which basically decided, should the government allow companies

to merge and get bigger, or should the government be more aggressive in using antitrust law to crack down on the growth of big companies? Wright defended some of the world's biggest tech companies from regulators who wanted to rein them in. Wright was powerful in his profession, and in his personal life, he appeared to be thriving. He drove a Maserati, and he lived in a $3 million house with his wife and three kids in a gated community in one of the nicest

neighborhoods in D.C. So, you know, for all intents and purposes, this guy had the perfect life. But he had a secret. He had a secret, and that was he was involved in sexual relationships with his former students. And that secret would eventually bring him down. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knudson.

It's Thursday, June 13th. Coming up on the show, how Joshua Wright became one of the most powerful people in antitrust law, and how it all came crashing down. how Joshua Wright became one of the most powerful people in antitrust law, and how it all came crashing down. To Los Angeles, take to the fields of the USA for your next vacation. Ready to kick off? Discover exciting games and events. Plus, find amazing hidden gems in cities full of adventures, delicious food, and diverse cultures. You'll love it so much you'll want to extend your stay beyond the matches.

Get the ball rolling on your soccer getaway. Head to visittheusa.com. At the height of his career, Josh Wright was perhaps the most powerful man in the world of antitrust. He used his influence to defend companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon against antitrust enforcers in D.C. And he allegedly used that power to pressure women into sexual relationships, according to lawsuits. This account is based on those lawsuits and interviews with dozens of Wright's former students and people who know him,

as well as emails, court filings, and other public records. Wright has denied any wrongdoing, and he's maintained that the relationships were consensual. He declined to comment for this story. A spokeswoman for a law firm representing him said, quote, we remain confident that the truth will prevail, leading to Mr. Wright's complete vindication in court. A key moment in Wright's rise to power took place in 2009, when he got an email from Google. The company wanted his help. At the time, Wright was a professor at George Mason University's School of Law, and he was an expert in two things, antitrust law and economics, which turned out to be a powerful combination to fight back against antitrust enforcement. He was sort of the right guy at the right time.

He had this tool that no one else was able to match, in that he could come up with the actual economic data to prove whether a company was in fact violating the antitrust law or increasing consumer prices or reducing choice. What Wright would do is go out and conduct vigorous economic studies that would say there's no evidence that these various companies engaged in activity that harmed consumers. The silver bullet for defeating antitrust cases out of the government was to prove using numbers and data that they were wrong. And Josh Wright was an expert in that. Not many people had the wherewithal and the brainpower and the training to do what Josh Wright was doing.

And therefore, he would win because he had better data than anyone else. When Google reached out to Wright for help in 2009, the company was under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC. That spring, Wright started working with Google. He suggested that the company sponsor his research into antitrust policies. And the company agreed. Wright became Google's secret weapon. Secret because not many people actually knew he was working for them. He looked and seemed like to everyone in the world,

he was just this professor at George Mason University. And that carried incredible influence and weight, especially in Washington, where it's hard to find impartial people. So he just looked like a neutral professor, but actually he's coordinating his responses with Google and taking their money. Exactly. And what did Josh Wright do for Google? He produced economic data and analysis showing or trying to prove that Google was not and had a competitive monopoly, showing that things that Google did did not hurt consumers. Also, He also did interviews with the press and wrote articles that defended Google.

Basically, something would happen out in the media saying that Google was a monopoly because of XYZ, and the Google lobbying office would email Josh Wright and say, hey, we need you to rebut this. Can you do something on this? And within hours, or certainly within a day, he would write on his own personal blog a rebuttal of whatever Google wanted him to rebut. There are several email chains where Josh Wright will say

to Google officials, yeah, okay, I can rebut this, but I need some facts and data to back me up. And Google would send them, you know, basically bullet points, like here are the facts on our side. And Josh Wright would just write them up. Among the readers of Wright's blog and academic papers were officials at the FTC,

some of whom were in charge of deciding whether the agency would bring an antitrust lawsuit against Google. And they were impressed by Wright's work. There was one time in 2011 when an FTC official sent Wright an email directly, saying that he liked one of his posts. Wright forwarded the email to a Google executive to demonstrate that the FTC was paying attention to his work. Days later, Google donated $180,000 to Wright's employer, the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University. So he's doing all this work with Google to influence the FTC, and he's not always disclosing where his funding is coming from. Is that legal?

So what Josh Wright is doing is not violating the law. It's just operating in sort of the lawlessness that we have in Washington. There are very few conflict of interest rules. There's no requirements that he disclosed funding in papers. So in a way, he's just sort of operating in a world that is free of rules, laws, or regulations. Ultimately, the FTC decided not to bring a lawsuit against Google. Wright deployed this same sort of strategy with other companies, like Meta, Amazon, and Qualcomm, the semiconductor giant, writing papers and blog posts to bolster their positions,

and working as contacts behind the scenes. And he was well paid for that work. Wright earned more than $2 million a year from these companies and others. Meanwhile, his star continued to rise in D.C. In 2012, Wright was nominated to serve on the Federal Trade Commission. He's nominated by Mitch McConnell to be one of the two Republican commissioners at the FTC, an incredibly influential and prominent position for an antitrust attorney. He has a confirmation hearing that's televised. He gets confirmed.

He starts at the FTC in early 2013. You know, he's a big deal. At his confirmation hearing, Wright disclosed his work for these big companies. But while at the FTC, he continued to advocate for them and voted again and again to defend them. He's in the weeds on these complicated antitrust matters. He's voting oftentimes to help companies by trying to block investigations

or by voting against issuing subpoenas in investigations. I mean, he really continued to advocate for big companies and for big tech companies. Several big companies, including Google and Qualcomm, continued to donate to George Mason. University records show Google gave $200,000 to the university during Wright's first year at the FTC. But Wright didn't stay at the FTC for long. He only served two years out of a six-year term.

Maybe he was getting sick of working for the federal bureaucracy. Is it possible that he was able to make more money by leaving the FTC? Oh, 100%. I mean, like anyone who works in government, you make a lot more money when you leave, especially someone in Josh Wright's position, who was a leading conservative Republican commissioner at the FTC. After leaving the agency, Wright went back to work at George Mason, where he became the executive director of the school's Global Antitrust Institute. There, Wright continued to defend big companies against antitrust investigations and continued to bring in big donations.

In 2017, Qualcomm pledged $2.9 million to the institute. From 2018 to 2020, Meta contributed more than $600,000. And from 2018 to 2023, Google and Amazon each donated about a million dollars. For years, the FTC, the DOJ, even some in Congress had tried to push rules, regulations, and investigations

to crack down on big tech companies. And he was the guy behind the scenes saying, well, you know, we really shouldn't do it because of this or because of that. He's a guy who knew the law and could use the law and his explanations of the law and his interpretations of the law to get antitrust enforcers to back down on investigations. Wright seemed unstoppable until his secrets started to come to light. That's next. Your teen requested a ride, but this time not from you. It's through

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While Wright amassed power in the world of antitrust, he also secretly pursued sexual relationships with his students and other young women. Brody spoke to several of the women and pored over court documents to understand their side of the story. Women have alleged in lawsuits that Wright sought out students from a class he taught at Contract Law at George Mason.

The class has required a first-year law student. Josh Wright would seek students in his class, seek them out. He's at the pinnacle of the antitrust bar in Washington. A lot of these women wanted to be antitrust lawyers. And they knew that he's not just teaching them this class. He can help them get internships. He can help them with introductions. He can help them get jobs.

And just as importantly, he can block them from all those things. He can keep them from getting internships. He can keep them from getting jobs. And that just gave Josh Wright like an insane amount of influence over these women and their careers. The lawsuits allege that Wright used that power

to draw students into sexual relationships, some of which would continue well after the women graduated. One of the students Wright pursued was Elise Dorsey. The two met in 2010, when Dorsey was 23 years old. She had asked career counselors to help her find a summer internship in antitrust law. They directed her to Wright. Later, Wright asked Dorsey to be his research assistant. Being a research assistant to Josh Wright was a very big deal.

You got time with him, you helped write research papers with him, you know, you got to potentially publish academic research with these, you know, star professors in which your name was listed, maybe even as an author, or just him thanking you would be huge. The two grew close. Dorsey confided in Wright that she was going through a divorce.

Wright told her that he was going through a divorce as well. And that summer, according to a lawsuit Dorsey later filed, things took a turn. Josh Wright told Elise Dorsey that he was going to California on a business trip to meet with clients, asked her if she wanted to come along. You know, she sort of sprung at the chance. So they fly out to California together in the fall of 2010,

and they check into their hotel, and it turns out that he's got just one room for both of them. How did she feel in that moment? According to lawsuits, she felt powerless. She felt like there was nothing that she could do to get out of the situation. She was sort of alone on the West Coast, 3,000 miles from her dorm, from her room and her family.

So she felt powerless. But also, again, this is a guy who she felt could control her career, who could make or break her entire career, and therefore, you know, he had lots of power. Wright and Dorsey started a sexual relationship that went on and off for years. During this time, Wright also pursued relationships

with other women, many of whom were former students. And he had a lot of influence over their careers. He helped them land jobs at the FTC and Justice Department or at prominent law firms. Some he would hire directly. Wright wasn't able to keep all of these relationships entirely secret, though. When his law firm found out he was having an affair with a young employee in 2019, he was pushed out.

After his wife found out about the affairs, she filed for divorce. But none of that really slowed him down. He still had influence in D.C. And he kept having affairs with various women, including Elise Dorsey. In 2021, after their relationship had gone cold for a while, Dorsey reached out to Wright.

She said she needed help finding a new job. The two resumed their affair, and Wright suggested she do some consulting work for his company. Dorsey started her fellowship at the University of Virginia in the fall of 2021. She was there for several months, but the money she'd been promised was not coming through. And then in October 2021, she gets dumped. Josh Wright sends her a text message, basically says, things are over with you. I've decided to get back with one of his former girlfriends.

So all of a sudden, at least Dorsey says, there's a problem. I was promised this money at UVA. I haven't gotten it. And all of a sudden, the person who's supposed to get me this money has just ended his relationship with me. So she starts sort of slowly realizing that she could be in a world of trouble. Two months after Wright broke up with her, Dorsey still hadn't received any of the money she'd been promised. She feared it was all a ruse. And in December 2021, she filed a sexual harassment complaint against Wright. And it was that complaint, which she filed to George Mason University, that would be the start of Wright's downfall. In her complaint, Dorsey alleged that she'd been in a sexual relationship with Wright

while she was a student, and that he'd later used his professional influence to retaliate against her by blocking payment of the fellowship money. A lawyer for Wright later said their relationship

was consensual, and cast Dorsey as a jilted lover out for revenge, and that, given the length of their relationship, the allegations were, quote, patently ridiculous and a malicious lie. The university hired a law firm to investigate, and, as required by law, they told Wright about Dorsey's sexual harassment claim.

Wright talked to Google, and the company sent Dorsey $85,000. Dorsey had also reached out to Meta and Amazon. Meta paid her the money she was owed. But Amazon was a different story. After Dorsey spoke to the company, Amazon confronted Wright and learned about Dorsey and Wright's relationship. Amazon officials thought it was inappropriate for Wright to ask them to fund Dorsey's fellowship without disclosing the fact that he was romantically involved with her, according to Brody's reporting. Amazon didn't pay for the fellowship and cut its ties with Wright. But Wright remained a paid consultant for Meta and Google. Both companies say they were unaware of his sexual relationship with Dorsey at the time. At George Mason, the investigation around Dorsey's complaint

was moving forward. So the pressure is really mounting on Josh Wright in July 2023, last summer. He decides to resign from George Mason. When he resigns, he posts something on Twitter that says, I'm leaving to start my own firm.

A bunch of his colleagues and maybe some former students chime in and reply and say, oh, what a big loss for George Mason. We're going to miss you. But not everyone celebrated Wright. In response to his tweet, one woman posted that Wright asked her out on a date

after she applied for a job. After she declined, Wright said he didn't have a job for her. She attached a screenshot of one of his messages and said, I encourage those who face sexual advances from Josh Wright to step forward. And other women did step forward, including Dorsey. Some allegations of sexual harassment went back as far as 2006. Once the allegations became public, many of Wright's clients, like Google, Meta, and Qualcomm, stopped working with him. A Google spokesman said, Upon learning the details of the allegations, we immediately cut ties. Within days, maybe within hours, he goes from having $2 million worth of business to having

$0 worth of business. How did Wright respond to these accusations that came sort of flooding out in public? He filed a $108 million defamation case against two of the women saying that they had slandered his name and cost him all of his business. He claims that they cost him $108 million by going public with their sexual harassment complaints against him. And so he's filing this big lawsuit against them. They have responded with their own lawsuits trying to defend themselves. And it's now involved in a long running litigation in Virginia that could take many years. Wright acknowledged the affairs but denied any wrongdoing. The case is set to go to trial. Last fall, Dorsey and other women spoke about their

allegations at George Mason University during an event called Me Too at GMU. Shortly after, Wright filed a lawsuit against the university, alleging the school violated its due process and civil rights by siding with accusers before concluding its investigation. George Mason University President Gregory Washington sent a letter to students saying the school was, quote, devoted to maintaining a community that is safe, dignifying, and welcoming. The university has since strengthened its prohibition of sexual relationships between faculty and students. So what's your takeaway from this story about this man who at one point had so much power and now no longer does? My takeaway is that this is just a fascinating story about a guy who had an incredible amount of influence over a policy and a trust that no one used to care about.

But it's now the most important economic question of our time. Are these companies too big? important economic question of our time. Are these companies too big? What does Wright's downfall mean for these women who say that he had this influence over them for so long? They are saying that he used his power to begin and maintain these sexual relationships, both again in helping them get jobs and also making them fear that if they stopped their relationships with him, these jobs and opportunities would go away. In fact, there's a really interesting moment with another woman who we have not spoken about in legal filings where she at one point is no longer dating Josh Wright and emailed

another one of his former girlfriends. They're sort of commiserating. And she says, man, it feels so nice not being in this relationship with Josh and knowing that everything I'm doing professionally is because of me. Like if I'm getting invited to speak at conferences, it's because of me. If I'm doing papers, it's because of me. If I'm, you know, testifying or doing work, it's because of me. It's not because I'm getting special favors because of Josh Wright. And I thought that was sort of a really touching, poignant explanation of how these women felt

when they were with him or not with him. That's all for today, Thursday, June 13th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.