DOJ Antitrust Chief Quits After White House Seeks Ouster (3)

The Justice Department’s top antitrust cop, Abigail Slater, resigned Thursday in a move that raises concerns that the Trump administration will soften its stance on challenging anticompetitive conduct by the biggest companies.

Slater’s announcement, posted to the website X, came after the White House requested her resignation, according to people familiar with the matter. She is departing just weeks before a trial over the department’s bid to force Live Nation Entertainment Inc. to sell off its ticketing arm, Ticketmaster. Justice officials also are poised to weigh in on Netflix Inc.’s plan to buy Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

The White House referred requests for comment to the Justice Department. Omeed Assefi will serve as acting assistant attorney general for antitrust, a role he’d held before Slater’s confirmation last year, the Justice Department confirmed.

“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,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

Us Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division Abigail Slater

Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg

Live Nation shares jumped as much 5.8% on the news of Slater’s departure, signaling investors think the company’s chances of settling the DOJ lawsuit seeking to break up the company will increase.

A former top adviser to Vice President JD Vance, Slater was confirmed by the Senate in March by a 78-19 vote – the most bipartisan confirmation of Trump’s second term aside from former Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s confirmation as Secretary of State. When Trump selected Slater in December 2024 for the post, the pick was widely hailed as evidence that the administration would continue to pursue the strategy of aggressive antitrust enforcement adopted by the Biden team.

The resignation comes amid internal disagreement at the Justice Department over merger enforcement. Last month, the agency agreed to allow Compass Inc. to close its acquisition of its largest rival, Anywhere Real Estate Inc., despite a recommendation from Slater and DOJ antitrust lawyers for an in-depth review of the deal.

An earlier dustup over Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.’s purchase of Juniper Networks Inc. led DOJ leaders to fire Slater’s two top deputies. A court hearing is set to begin next month over whether the agency improperly greenlit the deal.

Democrats and former Biden administration officials criticized the move to oust Slater as a sign that corporate interests and lobbyists are gaining the upper hand over antitrust enforcement.

“If you want to pay the lobbyists who are in charge of merger control, yeah you can get your merger done,” Douglas Farrar, who served as an adviser to former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “The concern is the breakdown in the rule of law we have here.”

Senate Democrats also raised concerns about Slater’s resignation, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who said, “it looks like corruption.”

The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to request for comment on the allegations that the ouster appears improper.

The Live Nation trial set for March 2 is a major antitrust case over alleged monopolization of the live events industry. The Justice Department and a group of states sued the company in 2024, alleging it illegally monopolizes ticketing and concert promotion services. The suit seeks to force Live Nation to spin off Ticketmaster, which it bought 15 years ago. The company has sought a settlement, bringing in high-profile Trump-world figures like Kellyanne Conway, the press secretary during Trump’s first term, and MAGA firebrand Mike Davis.

The antitrust division is also in the middle of the ongoing fight between Netflix-Paramount fight over Warner Bros. Both Netflix’s $82.7 million bid for Warner Bros. studios and streaming business and a rival bid from Paramount are currently being reviewed by the agency for antitrust concerns. The two companies have aggressively courted the administration by sending both Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Paramount’s David Ellison to meetings in Washington. Either deal would need sign-off from the antitrust division.

Slater’s deputy for civil litigation, who was overseeing the Live Nation case, Mark Hamer, left the agency earlier this week to return to private practice.

(Updates with Live Nation shares, Justice Department comment from fifth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Christopher Palmeri.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Leah Nylen in Washington at lnylen2@bloomberg.net;
Josh Sisco in San Francisco at jsisco6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Elizabeth Wasserman, Steve Stroth

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