Roger P. Alford served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice in the first Trump administration, and as principal deputy assistant attorney general in the division in the second term. He writes:

The Republican Party today is a battleground. The confrontation isn’t between traditional conservatives and Trump supporters. Rather, it pits genuine MAGA reformers against MAGA-in-name-only lobbyists. It’s a fight over whether Americans will have equal justice under law, or whether the wealthy and the well-connected enjoy preferential access to our justice system.

Officials like Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater, my former boss, strive to remain true to President Trump’s populist message that resonated with working-class Americans. Antitrust enforcement that applies equal justice under the law can deliver tangible results for millions of Americans. The MAGA-in-name-only lobbyists and the DOJ officials enabling them are pursuing a different agenda. They’re determined to exert and expand their influence and enrich themselves as long as their friends are in power. Will America be governed by the rule of law or the rule of lobbyists? If the rule of lobbyists prevails, it will render futile the realignment of the two parties, which has impelled millions of working-class Americans to migrate to the Right over the past decade.

The Department of Justice is today the central front in this battle. Slater and her closest advisers are committed to protecting ordinary Americans by vigorously enforcing the antitrust laws. The same can’t be said for many in the senior leadership. This was painfully demonstrated in the handling of the HPE-Juniper merger, which saw two tech giants achieve a sweetheart settlement, circumventing the Antitrust Division by currying favor with senior officials above us. The arrangement, as Sohrab Ahmari reported in these pages, involved a literal backroom meeting over cocktails.

It is still early days in this administration, and correcting the problems at the DOJ is possible, either by political will or judicial decree. I experienced nothing remotely like this when I served at the DOJ in the first Trump administration, and hopefully this is a short-term aberration.

To be clear, I have absolutely no reason to think the White House or other departments are involved in the current HPE-Juniper merger scandal. Nor do I think Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is involved.

But I can’t say the same about a small set of actors in senior leadership within the DOJ. I met with the most senior officials of the DOJ regularly, and my concerns aren’t based on conjecture. The core problem is simple: Attorney General Pam Bondi has delegated authority to figures — such as her chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, and Associate Attorney General-Designee Stanley Woodward — who don’t share her commitment to a single tier of justice for all.

Good may yet prevail, but at least with respect to senior DOJ oversight of antitrust enforcement, we are on a path toward injustice.

Under the rule of law, rules matter and must be respected, both in substance and in procedure. Under the rule of lobbyists, by contrast, antitrust laws are nuisances or obstacles to overcome. Rather than the legitimate lobbyists who have expertise and perform traditional functions of education and engagement, bullying lobbyists with no relevant expertise are perverting law enforcement through money, power, relationships, and influence.

There are people within the DOJ who follow the law and care deeply about protecting Americans from anticompetitive behavior. That is true of the leadership and career staff at the Antitrust Division. Sadly, there are others inside and outside the government who care little for the antitrust laws. They consider law enforcement not as binding rules, but an opportunity to leverage power and extract concessions. [Continue reading…]