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The White House has pushed out Donald Trump’s top antitrust enforcer Gail Slater from the Department of Justice after clashes with allies of attorney-general Pam Bondi in a significant shake-up at the agency.
“It is with great sadness and abiding hope that I leave my role as AAG [assistant attorney-general] for Antitrust today,” Slater said in a post on X on Thursday.
Her tweet came after the FT approached the White House and justice department about her imminent departure. The DoJ denied that she was leaving.
Slater has led the DoJ’s antitrust unit since March. Omeed Assefi, another senior official in the antitrust division, is expected to become the acting director of the division, the people said.
Bondi in a statement thanked Slater “for her service to the Antitrust Division which works to protect consumers, promote affordability and expand economic opportunity”.
The upheaval comes after Slater faced internal pressure from Bondi and allies over her handling of DoJ antitrust investigations.
Slater, a Senate-confirmed appointee who entered office pledging robust enforcement against corporate consolidation, has been frustrated with what she viewed as persistent political interference from Bondi and those linked to her, the people said.
Slater’s closest political ally was vice-president JD Vance, who has expressed sympathy for tougher scrutiny of corporate power. But he has not publicly intervened on her behalf.
The friction has played out across staffing decisions, public messaging and case strategy. Several of Slater’s deputies have been dismissed or sidelined in recent months, and people familiar with the internal dynamics describe tighter oversight from Bondi’s office over politically sensitive merger reviews.
Mark Hamer, the unit’s deputy chief, left the DoJ earlier this week after less than a year and rejoined Baker McKenzie as an antitrust partner.
One former antitrust official said the breakdown in trust was evident early on. “There’s a view that antitrust doesn’t operate in isolation,” the person said. “If a deal has political or strategic implications, it’s not just a competition question.”
The tensions briefly spilled into public view earlier this month when Slater dismissed her chief of staff Sara Matar after her detail at the unit had expired, only for the decision to be reversed following intervention from Bondi’s office, according to people familiar with the episode.
Matar, who is a political appointee and was seen around the DoJ sporting a Department of Government Efficiency hat, was perceived by Slater as a nuisance reporting her every move back to Bondi, said a person with knowledge of the matter.
The most consequential flashpoint was the proposed $14bn acquisition of Juniper Networks by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, said people briefed on the matter.
Slater was sceptical about approving the transaction on competition grounds, but the review drew intervention from the US intelligence community, which urged the department to weigh national security considerations, particularly the strategic imperative of strengthening domestic suppliers to compete with Huawei Technologies.
The episode sharpened perceptions inside the antitrust division that enforcement decisions were being shaped by broader political considerations. Two senior enforcers were later dismissed amid infighting over the settlement, according to a person familiar with the matter.
One of those, Roger Alford, formerly Slater’s second-in-command, has alleged that aides to Bondi were influenced by lobbyists before negotiating a settlement.
“The department has consistently reiterated that resolution of this merger was based only on the merits of the transaction,” the DoJ said in a statement.
