The Justice Department’s top antitrust attorney resigned 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 — an 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.
“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].”
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, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s 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 President Donald Trump might have to derail antitrust regulation.
Congressional Democrats questioned the merger and demanded information to determine if a “potentially corrupt political considerations guided the proposed settlement.”
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