Earlier this month, Fox News reported that former National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien issued a stark warning about the Department of Justice’s proposed remedies in U.S. v. Google, calling them “wildly overbroad” and dangerous to national security. His letter raised serious concerns that the DOJ’s aggressive push to restructure Google Search would not only harm competition, but also risk ceding U.S. technological leadership to China.

A Risk to National Security

O’Brien argued that the DOJ’s framework directly conflicts with U.S. national security interests, warning that it threatens America’s ability to lead in strategic technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

— “The U.S. now finds itself in a literal ‘technology race’—as significant and critical to our nation’s strength, and the Trump Administration’s objectives, as the ‘arms race’ of the past century,” O’Brien wrote. “To prevail, the U.S. must maintain and expand its global leadership in key technologies.”

According to O’Brien, the DOJ’s proposed breakup would do the opposite.

— “Splitting Google into smaller companies and forfeiting its intellectual property would weaken U.S. competitiveness against the giant, state-backed Chinese tech companies, since, separated entities would lack the enormous resources needed.”

A “De Facto Divestiture” of Google Search

DOJ lawyers have proposed sweeping measures, including forcing Google to sell off its Chrome browser, divesting Android, and sharing sensitive user data and search technology with competitors—including foreign companies—for the next 10 years.

In court testimony, Google CEO Sundar Pichai warned that these remedies would amount to a “de facto divestiture” of Google Search, unraveling decades of investment and innovation. This will allow companies, potentially including Chinese tech giants, to reverse-engineer “any part” of its tech stack, underscoring O’Brien’s national security concerns.

— “It’s not clear to me how to fund all the innovation we do,” Pichai testified, “if we were to give all of it away at marginal cost.”

Sacrificing American Innovation

O’Brien criticized the DOJ for embracing a European-style regulatory framework that, he argues, would slow American innovation and hand a competitive edge to China.

— “DOJ’s Antitrust Division is aggressively pursuing the misguided policies of the prior Biden Administration and its European-like approach to crippling our nation’s largest and most robust technology companies,” O’Brien wrote.

— “By ignoring their enormous value to our country’s strength, the Antitrust Division is seeking, through draconian remedies, to import European-style regulatory restrictions and prohibitions at home here in the Google Search case.”

He added that the economic and security impact of such an approach would reverberate far beyond Silicon Valley.

— “Experts in multiple fields critical to national security confirm these basic principles and loudly address the concern that handcuffing our high-tech powerhouses would undermine U.S. leadership and superiority in these key technologies, and risk ceding the world’s technology leadership to China.”