Top Google executives, including CEO Sundar Pichai, are being accused of falsely claiming “attorney-client privilege” to hide hundreds of relevant emails from federal prosecutors.

This accusations come from the Justice Department, who filed papers on Monday saying the company’s ‘Communicate With Care’ policy “camouflaged” thousands of documents.

“Google has explicitly and repeatedly instructed its employees to shield important business communications from discovery by using false requests for legal advice,” attorneys for the Justice Department wrote.

“Specifically, Google teaches its employees to add an attorney, a privilege label, and a generic ‘request’ for counsel’s advice to any sensitive business communications the employees or Google might wish to shield from discovery.

“Google has explicitly and repeatedly instructed its employees to shield important business communications from discovery by using false requests for legal advice.”

The Justice Department cites an email from 2018 in which Pichai emailed YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki (both pictured above) to discuss “a non-legal press issue.”

He copied in Google’s then-general counsel Kent Walker, and wrote “Attorney Client Privileged, Confidential” in the email.

“In these email chains, the attorney frequently remains silent, underscoring that these communications are not genuine requests for legal advice but rather an effort to hide potential evidence,” the Justice Department said.

Google has denied any wrongdoing, and says it turned over 4 million emails to the DOJ.

“Our teams have conscientiously worked for years to respond to inquiries and litigation, and suggestions to the contrary are flatly wrong,” a Google spokesperson said.

“Just like other American companies, we educate our employees about legal privilege and when to seek legal advice.”