Happy Monday, I’m Eriq Gardner.

Welcome back to The Rainmaker, my private newsletter that’s focused on legal maneuvering inside Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Washington, and Wall Street.

The ongoing tech market collapse isn’t the only headache for Silicon Valley. In today’s email, fresh news and reporting on Apple’s N.F.L. subpoena, Sundar Pichai’s “incognito mode” problem, Google’s legal bills, Amy Klobuchar’s antitrust progress, and Facebook’s courtroom battle with Israeli spies.

But first…

But the next act for Depp’s legal team, Brown Rudnick partners Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez, is sure to generate a lot less love from Fox Nation. In fact, the legal pair are now hoping to bring Fox News itself to trial over what they allege was a “concerted, fraudulent effort to overturn the demonstrable and irrefutable fact that Donald Trump had lost the election” that included “fabricated charges” that aired on Fox News.

The plaintiff in this case is a Venezuelan businessman named Majed Khalil, who was mentioned ever-so-briefly by former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell on the Dec. 10, 2020 edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight. At the time, Powell was exploring the history of voting tech companies Dominion and Smartmatic (both of whom are also suing Fox News). Powell’s theory held that the election had been stolen from Trump by vote-flipping machinery created for the benefit of the late Hugo Chavez. On this particular broadcast, Khalil was noted in passing as a name “you need to know,” along with three others. For the quick mention of Khalil’s name in the Powell interview, plus some social media promotion by Dobbs, Khalil is demanding $250 million in damages...

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Video footage of Pichai’s congressional testimony may play differently if ever shown to a jury. That could happen in a case that centers on how Google collects and uses data from those who have turned on the private “Incognito” mode on the company’s Chrome web browser. The plaintiffs estimate billions of dollars in damages from the interception of private browsing information that includes sexual interests and political views, and thanks to a judge’s recent order sanctioning Google for discovery misconduct, the tech giant may find it more difficult to defeat the suit. In fact, because of this rather extraordinary sanctioning, should the case get to trial, the jury could hear about Google’s efforts to hide key witnesses and evidence.

But let’s be honest, the good class actions tend to settle. This one in particular has the potential to be very good (Texas even brought a copycat lawsuit last month), so before it maybe goes away quietly, let me share what’s been happening—and what could happen next...