Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes is reportedly being considered as the new chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a Republican who has previously advocated opening an antitrust case against Google.

Reyes, should he get the role, would be responsible for scrutinising the competition and antitrust practices of companies such as Google.

His selection could cause problems for the company, given Reyes was one of a number of lawmakers who called on the FTC last year to reopen an antitrust probe of the technology giant.

Google has appeared to have close ties to the Democratic Party in recent years, as parent company Apple’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt was revealed to have planned aspects of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign as far back as 2014. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accused Google of being “directly involved” in Clinton’s campaign as well.

The current Democratic chairwoman of the FTC, Edith Ramirez, confirmed last Friday she would step down from her position on February 10th.

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