Grid reports:

When Larry Ellison pledged $1 billion to back Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, Musk got more than just another investor: He also gained a powerful political ally, with ties to the MAGA right and a history of backing the “anti-conservative bias” movement.

Behind the scenes, Oracle, which Ellison founded and oversees as chairman of its board of directors, has been engaged in a sprawling anti-Big Tech lobbying campaign, including funding a dark money group that presents itself as a conservative advocate against online censorship. Oracle targeted companies such as Google and Amazon with concerns about free speech and policy issues, like antitrust, in an apparent attempt to gain leverage over its competitors in Washington, interviews and records show.

Ellison and his company — once viewed as largely apolitical — aligned closely with Donald Trump when he was president. Ellison hosted Trump for a major fundraiser at his $43 million estate in California and helped broker a deal for the White House to use Oracle software to study hydroxychloroquine, once seen by Trump and some other Republicans as a potential covid treatment.

The dark money group, called the Internet Accountability Project (IAP), is headed by former Capitol Hill aide Mike Davis, who was instrumental in getting close to 300 Trump judges confirmed, including current Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, as aide to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa. Davis, who left Capitol Hill in 2019, now frequently lambastes Oracle’s competition on Twitter — but does not mention his group’s affiliation with the company. [Continue reading…]