The Justice Department’s top antitrust attorney was ousted Thursday amid conflict with department leaders over how aggressively to enforce the nation’s corporate competition laws, according to people familiar with the office who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss deliberations that have not been made public.
Gail Slater — a veteran antitrust attorney who vowed to resist political interference at her confirmation hearing — announced her departure on social media. She was a rare political appointee within the Trump administration with bipartisan support and is considered a thought leader for the bipartisan coalition of lawyers and activists that has arisen in recent years to challenge what they call an overly lax approach to policing corporate power.
President Donald Trump backed Slater’s termination, an official familiar with the decision said.
“It is with great sadness and abiding hope that I leave my role as AAG for Antitrust today. It was indeed the honor of a lifetime to serve in this role,” Slater wrote on X. “Huge thanks to all who supported me this past year, most especially the men and women of [the antitrust division].”
Omeed A. Assefi, a deputy in the division overseeing criminal enforcement, will temporarily lead the antitrust division. Asseffi worked as a political appointee in the Justice Department during the first Trump administration and led the division for nearly two months last year while Slater awaited Senate confirmation. Assefi is close with Mike Davis, an ally of Attorney General Pam Bondi and online activist who is an informal legal adviser to the Trump administration.
“On behalf of the Department of Justice, we thank Gail Slater for her service to the Antitrust Division which works to protect consumers, promote affordability, and expand economic opportunity,” Bondi said in a statement.
A senior Justice Department official said agency leaders were frustrated with the slow pace of Slater’s office, saying it took too long to move through investigations and merger requests. Antitrust cases can take years to move through the courts and the official said the leaders hope a new antitrust head can speed up the historically slow process.
“We are letting perfect be the enemy of good in our effort to close deals,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter. “I have a list of 100 proposed mergers, and a list of even more investigations, why are we sitting on this?”
Slater, an ally of Vice President JD Vance, was expected to take an aggressive approach to policing monopolies, particularly with the tech titans of Silicon Valley, when she entered the role in March. But some Trump administration critics raised concerns that the president could turn antitrust enforcement into a tool for rewarding or punishing companies based on his whims rather than the law.
In July, two of Slater’s top deputies were pushed out after clashing with lobbyists working for Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which was trying to settle a lawsuit the division had brought over its $14 billion acquisition of a competitor, Juniper Network. The settlement was pushed through by Chad Mizelle, Bondi’s then chief of staff, according to the Wall Street Journal. Slater opposed the firings, which were seen as a sign of the power that lobbyists aligned with Trump might have to derail antitrust regulation.
Congressional Democrats questioned the merger and demanded information to determine if “potentially corrupt political considerations guided the proposed settlement.”
Mizelle, who no longer works at the Justice Department, seemingly celebrated Slater’s departure, saying, “No one is entitled to work at DOJ.”
“You must be willing to put aside personal agendas and vendettas to advance the President’s priorities and serve the American people,” Mizelle wrote on social media. “DOJ antitrust will continue protecting consumers and become an even stronger advocate for fair market dynamics. American competitiveness will prosper!”
Slater worked for years as an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission and as an adviser to Vance when he was a senator. When she was nominated, she had the support of top Trump allies, including Davis.
But those relationships soured. Davis and other prominent conservatives were paid by Hewlett Packard Enterprise to help push through the merger that Slater opposed, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Davis has also been advocating for a favorable settlement for Live Nation in the antitrust lawsuit against the ticketing company.
Davis responded to Slater’s ouster with a short quip on social media: “Good Riddance.”
In a group chat with other conservatives, Davis on Thursday took credit for pushing out Slater, according to screenshots of the messages viewed by The Washington Post.
“Gail was a disaster,” Davis wrote to a group chat titled “Frenemies Fight Club.” “I recommended her hiring. And her firing.”
Senior Trump administration officials were also frustrated that Slater closed a years-long probe into the meatpacking industry that examined steep price increases during the pandemic. A few weeks after that decision, Trump publicly demanded in November an investigation into the meatpacking industry over soaring prices.
Elizabeth Wilkins — a former FTC official who heads the Roosevelt Institute, a political think tank — said people across the political spectrum considered Slater a serious legal force in the antitrust field.
“I don’t agree with everything that Gail Slater did, but she was there looking to seriously examine mergers,” Wilkins said. “She got very clearly slapped down.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), a leading Senate advocate for more stringent antitrust enforcement, denounced Slater’s firing on social media.
“Every merger in front of the admin now reeks of double-dealing—Ticketmaster’s stock is already surging,” Warren said. “Congress must unearth what happened and hold Trump accountable.”
Ian Duncan contributed to this report.
The post Justice Dept.’s head of antitrust departs amid tensions on enforcement appeared first on Washington Post.
