So, it starts with a slightly different form of sleezy behavior: Google paid a university to write "academic studies" that Google would then claim demonstrated that Google wasn't anticompetitive.
One of the professors, who was the author of many of those "studies" is Joshua Wright, who thereafter took the FTC Commissioner position in 2013. Note that the Google checks to GMU started the same month as the FTC probe began.
Note that the close relationship between Google and this White House have been well documented. Googlers are some of Obama's top contributors in the previous Presidential election, numerous Googlers have taken high-ranking positions at the White House, and Google executives or representatives visit weekly. So I have a hard time buying that any of this is coincidence.
And the rumor is, that within like a month of Joshua Wright resigning, the FTC started investigating Google antitrust again.
