Ranking Member Raskin Probes Alphabet’s “Coerced Confession” That Directly Contradicts Employees’ Testimony to Congress
Republicans Claim Alphabet “Admitted” It Was Pressured Into Changing Content Moderation Policies—An “Admission” Made by the Company for the First Time Five Days Before It Paid Trump $24.5 Million to Settle His Meritless Lawsuit
Washington, D.C. (October 31, 2025)—Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, demanding answers about the company’s sudden reversal of testimony regarding its COVID-19 content moderation policies and its recent $24.5 million settlement with Donald Trump. Alphabet Inc. is the parent company of Google, and the ultimate owner of YouTube.
“On September 23, 2025, attorneys for Alphabet, YouTube’s parent company, sent this Committee a letter containing a ‘statement of facts’ that reads like a coerced confession. The letter—regarding YouTube’s content guidelines during the COVID-19 Pandemic—appears to give Committee Republicans exactly what they have sought for the past three years: an admission that the Biden Administration ‘pressed the Company regarding certain user-generated content.’ Yet this belated confession is impossible to square with the detailed testimony of 20 Alphabet employees, who all explained, under penalty of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 for False Statements to Congress, that the Biden Administration never sought to force YouTube to remove content. What changed? What was Alphabet promised or threatened with in order to dance to this new MAGA tune?” wrote Ranking Member Raskin.
On September 23, 2025, after a years-long investigation into YouTube’s content moderation policies, Alphabet’s corporate counsel sent a “statement of facts” to the Committee—claiming that the Biden Administration “pressed the company regarding certain user-generated content.” This stilted, lawyerly statement stands in stark contrast to testimony from 20 Alphabet employees interviewed during Committee Republicans’ extensive investigation into alleged government coercion over online content moderation. The transcripts of these employee interviews and depositions, which the Majority has failed to release in part or in whole, make clear that the Biden Administration never pressured Alphabet or YouTube to take down any content.
- These employees testified under penalty of law that no Biden Administration officials pressured or coerced YouTube to remove or restrict content.
- For instance, when asked about the company’s COVID-19 vaccine content policy, a senior executive on YouTube’s Trust and Safety unit, which is charged with defining and enforcing YouTube’s policies for what is and is not allowed on its platform, testified: “I have no recollection of us, my team, the company, making a change to that policy due to pressure from the Biden administration.”
- For instance, when asked about the company’s COVID-19 vaccine content policy, a senior executive on YouTube’s Trust and Safety unit, which is charged with defining and enforcing YouTube’s policies for what is and is not allowed on its platform, testified: “I have no recollection of us, my team, the company, making a change to that policy due to pressure from the Biden administration.”
- Ironically, several witnesses confirmed that YouTube’s enforcement of pandemic-related content standards began during the Trump Administration in early 2020 and before President Biden won the election.
- Testimony from YouTube employees across departments showed a consistent record that YouTube developed and enforced its COVID-19 content policies independently and voluntarily.
Within days of sending its letter to the Committee, YouTube agreed to settle Donald Trump’s nearly five-year-old lawsuit for $24.5 million, including $22 million paid directly to Trump himself. This pattern mirrors Trump’s recent coercion of other major institutions, including law firms, universities, and media companies.
In response to the clear discrepancy between Alphabet’s lawyers’ statements and Alphabet’s own testimony before Congress, Ranking Member Raskin asks two simple questions: “Are you now asserting that all of these witnesses lied to or misled the Committee? Is it more likely that all of these 20 witnesses got together to plan and provide false testimony or that you wrote an unsworn letter contradicting all of them to placate President Trump and his servants?”
Under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, it is a felony to make a False Statement to Congress.
Ranking Member Raskin requested that YouTube provide documents and communications related to the September 23 letter, the Trump lawsuit settlement, and any interactions with the Trump Administration regarding YouTube’s content policies. Raskin also invited YouTube’s CEO to sit for a transcribed interview with the Committee to explain the company’s apparent reversal and the circumstances surrounding the company’s settlement with Trump.
Click here to read the letter.