O’Brien is a big tech lobbyist paid to inflate security threats of antitrust reforms

High-level former intelligence and national security officials have provided crucial assistance to Silicon Valley giants as the tech firms fought off efforts to weaken online monopolies and force competition on major platforms.

"We need to keep Big Tech strong — so it can keep America strong," claimed Robert O'Brien, the former White House National Security Advisor to President Trump. O’Brien has appeared on cable news programs and penned several opinion columns rallying opposition to tech antitrust reforms in Congress.

John Ratcliffe, the former Director of National Intelligence, Brian Cavanaugh, a former intelligence aide in the White House, and O'Brien jointly wrote to congressional leaders, warning darkly that certain legislative proposals to check the power of Amazon, Google, Meta, and Apple would embolden America's enemies.

“We note with certainty that our adversaries – especially China – will welcome any federal government actions that diminish the strength of the U.S. tech industry,” the former intelligence officials wrote. The 2022 letter warned that reforms such as the Open App Markets Act and the American Innovation and Choice Online Act would leave the “tech industry weakened and vulnerable to the CCP.

The letter left unmentioned that the former officials were paid by tech industry lobbyists at the time as part of a campaign to suppress support for the legislation.

Tax disclosures show that the tech giants paid O’Brien’s consulting firm, American Global Strategies LLC, at least $1,012,500 through a group that lobbied policymakers on major tech policies.

O’Brien, Ratcliffe, and Cavanaugh did not disclose the payments in the letter to congressional leaders. AGS did not respond to a request for comment.