I think there is clear precedent for this sort of thing. When I read Fatal Risk (about AIG's financial division from 1980's to the financial crisis in which it

I think there is clear precedent for this sort of thing. When I read Fatal Risk (about AIG's financial division from 1980's to the financial crisis in which it collapsed), there was if I remember correctly Eliot Spitzer, the attorney general for New York, with a bunch of cases on which he built a career and a ton of political support that subsequently failed in the courtroom. The result was a complete waste of money and resources on shoddy cases, some people got fired in disgrace and some people got popular. (In Google's case it would be like the CEOs resigning while admitting no wrongdoing and the case itself languishing in court before being settled with no positive outcome for the society.) Let's hope the Google case is not going to turn out that way.