(Bloomberg) -- Alphabet Inc.’s Google is pushing back on U.S. Justice Department claims that it improperly used attorney-client privilege to conceal documents in the government’s monopoly lawsuit against the company.

“None of the emails that Plaintiffs attach to their motion evidences a bad-faith scheme to hide documents,” Google said in a court filing Thursday. “Most involve Google’s contractual negotiations with business partners, a subject on which employees would appropriately need and desire legal advice from in-house counsel.”

On Monday, the Justice Department said Google employees unnecessarily copied company lawyers on emails, especially when discussing competition issues, to shield documents from discovery in litigation and government investigations. Google said Thursday those claims were “baseless.”

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The department, which is gathering Google documents in preparation for trial, requested Google be sanctioned and forced to produce the withheld emails.

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