Gail Slater leaving role as DOJ antitrust chief – Business News
Justice Department antitrust chief Gail Slater stated Thursday she is stepping down from the role – amid studies of infighting over how the Trump administration ought to deal with key circumstances together with a pending lawsuit in opposition to Ticketmaster.
“It is with great sadness and abiding hope that I leave my role as AAG for Antitrust today,” Slater wrote on X. “It was indeed the honor of a lifetime to serve in this role. Huge thanks to all who supported me this past year, most especially the men and women of” the antitrust division.
The announcement from Slater, who beforehand served as a high financial adviser to Vice President JD Vance, got here after the White House requested for her resignation, Bloomberg reported, citing a source acquainted with the matter.
Gail Slater introduced Thursday she is leaving her role as DOJ antitrust chief. Bloomberg by way of Getty Images
The Post has reached out to the DOJ and the White House for remark.
An Irish-born and Oxford-trained legal professional, Slater entered the DOJ with broad help from antitrust hawks on each side of the aisle. However, a divide shortly emerged between Slater, who together with populist conservatives most popular an aggressive anti-monopoly strategy, and different Republicans who favored a more conventional, lenient strategy to enforcement that inspired dealmaking.
Slater’s exit occurred shortly after a weird episode during which she declined to resume the contract of her chief of employees, Sara Matar – and even posted a tweet thanking her for her service – just for Attorney General Pam Bondi to overrule her choice and reinstate Matar, Semafor reported. Slater later took down the post.
Slater has just lately been “sidelined” as senior DOJ officers held talks with Ticketmaster and its mum or dad company Live Nation about a potential settlement, Semafor reported final week.
Live Nation didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The outgoing DOJ chief had pushed to take the dwell occasion giant to trial in March over allegations it has operated an unlawful monopoly that ends in greater ticket costs for shoppers.
Last July, high Justice Department officers settled a bid to dam Hewlett Packard’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks regardless of Slater’s sturdy objections. At the time, rumors swirled that MAGA-aligned lobbyists had leaned on their White House connections to kill the case.
Slater favored an aggressive strategy to antitrust enforcement.
Shortly after the settlement was introduced, two of Slater’s high aides – Roger Alford and William Rinner – have been abruptly fired from their posts.
Alford went scorched earth in an August speech, blasting “MAGA-in-name-only lobbyists and DOJ officials enabling them” who he claimed have been undermining Trump’s antitrust agenda.
Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway and outstanding Trump ally Mike Davis have reportedly suggested Live Nation during the settlement negotiations and beforehand did the identical for Hewlett Packard and Juniper.
Davis, who has clashed behind the scenes with Slater and her supporters, celebrated her exit on X, writing “Good riddance.”
