The US Division of Justice antitrust division will likely be led by Gail Slater following a profitable Congressional affirmation vote at the moment. Slater will take over a number of antitrust instances in opposition to massive tech companies, filed underneath each Donald Trump and Joe Biden — together with a high-profile Google search monopoly swimsuit.
The Senate voted to verify Slater with bipartisan assist as Assistant Legal professional Normal for the Antitrust Division. She’ll be becoming a member of Trump’s administration for the second time — she labored for the Nationwide Financial Council throughout his first time period and was an financial coverage advisor and Senate workers member for Vice President JD Vance earlier than the election. She has an extended historical past in antitrust legislation, becoming a member of the Federal Commerce Fee to work on merger instances starting in 2004 and later lobbying for anti-monopoly laws whereas working for Roku. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) urged colleagues to verify Slater by noting her “a number of years” of personal antitrust legislation follow and a decade-long stint on the FTC.
Slater will be a part of the administration in the course of US v. Google, an antitrust case that noticed Google declared an illegal monopolist final 12 months. A listening to scheduled subsequent month will resolve what treatments to implement in opposition to it, together with a possible breakup of the corporate. She will likely be changing Jonathan Kanter, underneath whom the DOJ received its case in opposition to Google.
The brand new antitrust watchdog hasn’t firmly articulated when and the place the DOJ will struggle its new battles. When Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, who leads the antitrust subcommittee, asked about her commitment to see by way of antitrust enforcement began underneath Trump, she mentioned, “sources are in fact a vital consideration” in taking instances additional, including that antitrust civil litigation is “pricey in order that will likely be a consideration.”
Different elements of the Trump administration have used their energy to go after political enemies, and Trump’s long-standing antagonism with firms like Google has raised considerations of politically motivated litigation. Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who has mentioned she had heard good issues about Slater, requested throughout the affirmation listening to whether or not she would “open an investigation or file a lawsuit for any cause aside from reputable legislation enforcement functions.” Slater responded that she doesn’t “anticipate a truth sample such as you described.”