A person of President Trump’s final functions in business office is to pardon a former Google engineer who was convicted of thieving trade secrets. Anthony Levandowski worked for Google’s self-driving car or truck division, now known as Waymo, right before leaving to identified Otto, a self-driving truck business that was acquired by Uber. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail in August, with judge William Alsup describing the incident as the “biggest trade key crime I have at any time noticed.”
Levandowski was found to have downloaded thousands of files to his laptop right before he still left Google and entered into sale conversations. Uber in the long run fired him immediately after Google sued, and Levandowski remains in a lawful fight with the ride-hailing organization, professing it must be liable for the $179 million he was purchased to pay back Google. In a individual fit, Levandowski has argued Uber owes him billions of pounds in dropped value from the Otto deal.
My family members and I are grateful for the opportunity to go forward, and grateful to the President and some others who supported and advocated on my behalf.
— Anthony Levandowski (@antlevandowski) January 20, 2021
Levandowski never began his sentence, as Alsup authorized it to be delayed indefinitely since of the COVID-19 pandemic. In accordance to a assertion from the White Residence, Levandowski’s pardon was supported by figures from the tech industry together with controversial billionaire investor Peter Thiel, fellow Founders Fund spouse Trae Stephens, Thiel Capital COO Blake Masters, Hollywood agent and Palantir advisor Michael Ovitz, and Oculus and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey.
Together with Levandowski, Trump has pardoned 72 other individuals and commuted the jail sentences of 70 extra. The record contains rappers Lil Wayne, who pled guilty to a firearms possession charge previous year, and Kodak Black, who is now in jail on weapons fees. Trump also granted a pardon to Steve Bannon, the former Breitbart Information manager who served as main strategist to Trump until his acrimonious departure in 2017.
Update, Jan 20th, 3.45AM: Included Levandowski’s tweet.
Correction: a previous edition of this tale misidentified a business co-founded by Palmer Luckey. It is Anduril, not Palantir. We regret the mistake.
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