U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo met with chief executive officers, including Amazon.com Inc.'s Andy Jassy and Apple Inc.'s Tim Cook, early in her tenure, according to a copy of her April 2021 calendar obtained by Bloomberg News.

The calendar shows that Raimondo, who has faced criticism from progressives over her ties to the biggest tech companies, requested the April 5 meeting with Jassy, while the meeting with Cook, which was sought by Apple, took place on April 21. The meetings don't specify what was discussed, but the Commerce Department oversees key trade issues for U.S. business and officials routinely meet with company executives.

Raimondo also held meetings with a slew of CEOs in other industries, including General Motors Co.'s Mary Barra, AT&T Inc.'s John Stankey, Verizon Communication Inc.'s Hans Vestberg, Visa Inc.'s Al Kelly, Walt Disney Co.'s Bob Chapek and Suzanne Clark, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The Commerce Department has started to release Raimondo's calendars in recent months in response to public records requests by activists.

Left-leaning groups have accused Raimondo of acting as the Biden administration's mouthpiece for big businesses, pushing for policies that would benefit corporate America. Raimondo rankled the groups last year when she publicly opposed legislation in Europe that would rein in the power of the biggest U.S. tech companies. Since then, Raimondo has voiced support for similar antitrust legislation in the U.S., and the White House said President Joe Biden and Raimondo were aligned on the need to ensure that tech companies compete fairly in the economy.

Raimondo has taken stances on numerous issues that the business community opposes, said Commerce Department spokesperson Robyn Patterson. "There isn't an inch of daylight between Secretary Raimondo's position on business and Big Tech and President Biden's position," she said.

It's part of Raimondo's job "to work with the business community to move the President's agenda forward," said Patterson.  Raimondo and Biden "have both fought special interests to protect American workers and consumers, and partnered with American businesses to create good-paying jobs and advance our nation's strategic interests." Patterson noted the recent infrastructure law as an example of that partnership.

Jeff Hauser, the founder and director of government ethics group Revolving Door Project, which is among the groups that obtained Raimondo's calendars, said he's concerned about the closeness between the Commerce Department and some of the world's largest corporations.

"The interests of big tech and the interests of the American people are not correlated," Hauer said. "The relationships between executive branch leaders and tech moguls should be adversarial, not convivial."

Raimondo also met with Josh Bolten, president and CEO of the Business Roundtable, a group that represents corporate chief executives across a range of industries, including tech, telecom, retail and more.

She received a briefing from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States or Cfius, a body that reviews the national-security implications of purchases of U.S. businesses by foreign buyers. That panel is reviewing TikTok, the popular social media app controlled by Chinese-owned ByteDance Ltd.

Emily Birnbaum reports for Bloomberg.

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