Thread by @jason_kint

Woah. Lawsuit against Facebook for overpaying $5b+ to FTC and SEC to limit Zuckerberg’s exposure from its cover-up around Cambridge Analytica just took an interesting twist with allegations Sheryl Sandberg was using and purging a separate Gmail account for sensitive matters. /1

This is in a sanctions motion just unsealed against her and another board member (now Biden Chief of Staff). The Delaware lawsuit is brought by pension funds now deposing a number of the board members after a records inspection allowed for a derivative lawsuit. /2

It appears that the evidence of the spoliation comes from emails showing up on the other end of the communications during discovery. This is how Google’s own spoliation issues surfaced (worth noting Facebook’s Sandberg and Schrage both worked at Google so…) /3

The allegations in the motion are that Sandberg used a pseudonym account on Gmail and those are the emails which were set to automatically delete. /4

If you recall in March 2018, the entire world finally really found out what Facebook had been denying and deflecting and covering up for years, so safe to say the litigation holds were incredibly clear to Facebook and its directors. /5

In fact, the motion states they were communicated only a few months later. /6

The bullets of what allegedly Sandberg used the other email account to communicate on are mind blowing. This is investigations that created personal legal risk to the leadership and potentially could bring down the entire company for a massive cover-up. /7

More here. /8

Here is what I said before this sanctions motion unsealed. Worth noting @BarbMcQuade flagged the SCOTUS matter of interest on her pod this morning. I’m not sure she’s aware of the massive Kavanaugh conflict or the cover-up specifics but the case still caught her attention. /9