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"Cohen-Watnick now works for the software company Oracle." http://politi.co/2yNLH7s
Oracle has been named in a lawsuit alleging the company’s executives lied to shareholders when they explained why cloud sales were growing. https://bloom.bg/2KIhKLR
About 300 Oracle employees walked off the job on Thursday to protest founder and executive chairman Larry Ellison's decision to hold a fundraiser for President Donald Trump the previous evening https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/02/report-300-oracle-employees-walk-out-over-ceos-trump-fundraiser/
Bloomberg reports that Oracle is one of the benefactors behind the Internet Accountability Project, a conservative nonprofit that advocates both for enforcing antitrust laws against tech giants and for stronger privacy regulations https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2020/02/26/oracle-political-campaigns-orc.html
The Internet Accountability Project, now known to be funded Oracle, is behind the recent Trump push to repeal Section 230 protections for social media companies https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/10902224431610/IAP%20Section%20230%20comment.pdf
They are also behind the recent antitrust lawsuits against Google and Facebook https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/feb/18/american-conservative-union-internet-accountabilit/
Ezra-Cohen Watnick, who briefly worked for Oracle after being ousted from the National Security Council for pushing the Obama wiretapping conspiracy theory, was later hired at the DOD and recently took over as acting undersecretary of defense https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/ezra-cohen-watnick-on-and-off-trump-official-who-supported-obama-wiretapping-theory-promoted-to-key-defense-dept-post
Oracle is moving its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, following other conservative-leaning tech companies https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/11/oracle-is-moving-its-headquarters-from-silicon-valley-to-austin-texas.html
After this initial compromise, Russian hackers gained access to client networks by embedding malware in an update to the Oracle software managed by SolarWinds. https://twitter.com/TrickFreee/status/1338344584812744706
Earlier this year, Donald Trump attacked TikTok, allowing Oracle to strike a deal with TikTok to control its US operations. https://www.businessinsider.com/look-inside-president-trump-and-larry-ellisons-relationship-2020-8
In March, when the Trump administration ordered up a study enabling the widespread release of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19, one of the first questions the director of an agency that would oversee the trial asked was: “Who has talked with Oracle?” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/business/oracles-embrace-of-trump-goes-beyond-its-bid-for-tiktok.html
Ellison joined Tesla's board in 2018 after purchasing about three million shares. Elon Musk, who has also supported Trump, recently also announced Tesla’s planned move to Austin, TX https://www.newsweek.com/oracle-chairman-larry-ellison-donald-trump-supporter-microsoft-tiktok-bytedance-deal-1531676
SolarWinds is also headquartered in Austin, TX https://www.solarwinds.com/company/contact-us
The Internet Accountability Project is the brainchild of Mike Davis, who led the fight to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. https://www.vice.com/en/article/kz43qw/exclusive-gop-activists-just-formed-a-dark-money-group-to-go-war-with-big-tech
In 2019, Oracle spent $8.2M on lobbying https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2019&id=D000000422
Oracle founder donated $250,000 to @LindseyGrahamSC PAC in final days of now stalled TikTok ‘deal’
“If TikTok is saved, you can thank me,” Graham said in August https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/17/21520356/oracle-tiktok-larry-ellison-lindsey-graham-super-pac-donation-jaime-harrison
“If TikTok is saved, you can thank me,” Graham said in August https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/17/21520356/oracle-tiktok-larry-ellison-lindsey-graham-super-pac-donation-jaime-harrison
Larry Ellison bet on Marco Rubio in 2016. He donated $1 million to a Super PAC supporting his presidential run: Conservative Solutions PAC https://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/20/larry-ellison-keeps-bet-on-marco-rubio-donates-1-million-to-super-pac.html
Ellison had already given $3M to Rubio’s campaign in 2015 https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Larry-Ellison-gave-3-million-to-Marco-Rubio-6425154.php
Soon after Election Day 2016, Ellison’s co-chair at Oracle, Safra Catz, was invited onto the Trump transition team. In 2018, she complained about Amazon’s bid on cloud services contract that ultimately went to Microsoft https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2018/04/05/trump-amazon-pentagon-cloud-contract-oracle-catz.html
Oracle CEO Safra Catz donated $125,000 to the Trump Victory PAC and another $5,600 to Donald Trump For President Inc., with additional donations to the RNCC, RNC, McCarthy Victory Fund, Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes... https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=safra+catz&contributor_employer=oracle
