Top Trump administration antitrust official faces criticism over approach, sources say

Yahoo

4 days ago

Washington — Internal friction with the Justice Department team that fights monopolies has led to private conversations in the Trump administration about whether to push out some staff in the antitrust division or to work to smooth out the issues, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.
Gail Slater, who in March took charge of lawsuits against Capital One, Apple, Google and other major companies as head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, still has support from some top officials in the administration, but she and some on her team have been a target of criticism from colleagues and business leaders, sources inside and outside the administration told CBS News.
Slater was asked to come to a meeting at the White House on Thursday with other high-level administration officials, two of the sources said. The gathering, expected to focus on mergers policy, will include the Office of Budget and Management, the National Economic Council and the Federal Trade Commission.
There has been friction over the handling of investigations into T-Mobile, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others, sources said. The antitrust division is one of two agencies that protects competition in markets by enforcing the antitrust laws that regulate mergers and business practices that harm consumers.
Slater, who entered her role in high regard in both MAGA circles and among left-leaning watchdogs, hasn't adopted a block-every-merger approach. But some Trump officials have vented that it has taken a substantial amount of internal push-and-pull to land on decisions to reach deals that resolve merger issues, three of the sources said.
Questions have risen inside the NEC, FTC, Federal Communications Commission and in other corners of the administration about whether President Trump's policies are Slater's priority, or whether she's forging her own policy agenda, the sources said.
Slater has also told companies not to try to engage with the administration via Trump-aligned lobbyists and consultants, several sources said. Frustration with that tack led business leaders to reach out to White House officials wondering why they were being told who they can hire, two sources said.
Sources said in one meeting between antitrust officials, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and a software company it was seeking to acquire, Juniper Networks, Slater told the business parties they should only work directly with Justice Department officials, not through outside consultants. HPE's consultants included Trump allies Mike Davis and Arthur Schwartz, who weren't in the room.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputies are aware of some administration officials' tension with the antitrust division, sources said.
The Justice Department sued to stop Hewlett Packard Enterprise from buying Juniper in January, and the two sides settled the lawsuit in June, paving the way for the acquisition to close.
But multiple sources said Bondi's chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, had to overrule Slater to accept a Hewlett Packard/Juniper offer, which DOJ officials were confident was a better deal than what the government could've gotten at trial.
Some administration officials defended Slater as deeply principled and laudably untrusting of well-connected Trump allies who want to influence the outcome of confidential legal matters.
One source said Slater has repeatedly noted that she was confirmed by the Senate with 78 votes, more than almost any other Trump official other than Secretary of State Marco Rubio — a validation that she's well qualified for the role.
"Gail is a long-time friend and fellow seasoned antitrust lawyer," FTC Commissioner Mark Meador told CBS News in a statement. "She's been a fantastic partner as FTC and DOJ work together to fulfill our shared mission."
Some of Slater's supporters noted that unlike the Biden administration, which used as much time as it could statutorily to conduct investigations, Slater and her team have voluntarily closed investigations in a shorter window dozens of times.
And she has diverged from the Biden antitrust team's approach in other ways, another source said. The Biden team, for example, was going to recommend blocking a merger of Capital One and Discover, and Slater allowed it to go through.
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