President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated antitrust veteran and J.D. Vance economic adviser Gale Slater to head the Justice Department's antitrust division, which will lead to major reforms against companies such as Google, Visa and Apple. He was in charge of all records of the hit exclusive incident.
Trump said in a post on his social media platforms that Slater is expected to continue the department's crackdown on Big Tech, including incidents that took place in the White House during Trump's first term.
“Big Tech has been on a rampage for years, stifling competition in our country's most innovative sectors, and, as we all know, using its market power to control not only the rights of Little Tech but also many We've cracked down on the rights of Americans!'' Trump said.
Slater served on the White House National Economic Council in 2018, working on President Trump's executive order regarding national security concerns about Chinese communications equipment.
Before joining Vance's firm, Mr. Slater worked at Fox and Roku.
Vice President-elect Vance said antitrust regulators should take a broader approach to antitrust enforcement and praised the work of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan.
Slater grew up in Dublin, Ireland, and began his legal career at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London before coming to Washington.
She spent 10 years at the FTC, first as an antitrust attorney litigating to block mergers, including Whole Foods' acquisition of organic grocery retailer Wild Oats, and then as an advisor to then-Chairman Julie Brill. Ta. Julie Brill later became an executive at Microsoft. .
Mr. Slater also represented Big Tech companies such as Amazon and Google at a now-defunct industry group called the Internet Association.
She remains considered an antitrust hawk among tech skeptics in Washington, who have welcomed her appointment.
Garrett Bentley, a former congressional Republican adviser and founder of GRV Strategies, said Slater's nomination shows Trump is “serious about confronting Big Tech.”
“Antitrust enforcement will continue,” Bentley said.
The Tech Oversight Project, a group that supports the work of Jonathan Cantor, Biden's Justice Department antitrust chief, said the nomination shows that antitrust law has staying power as a bipartisan political issue. He said that it shows.
“Gail Slater is a strong candidate to continue in the job,” said Sasha Howarth, the group's executive director.
Mr. Slater will take on a number of high-profile cases in which the world's largest corporations are accused of illegally building and protecting monopolies.
President Trump said Slater would “ensure that our competition laws are vigorously and fairly enforced, with clear rules that promote, not stifle, the ingenuity of our great companies.” said.
The appointment puts Slater in charge of the Justice Department's efforts to force Google to sell its Chrome browser and take other steps to curb the company's dominance in online search.
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit in 2020 during the first Trump administration. However, the amendment was brought before Mr. Cantor.
The judge overseeing the case said Trump officials would not be given additional time to reevaluate the proposal before the April trial.
Google is facing a second battle with the Justice Department over its online advertising technology, and Apple faces charges that it monopolized the U.S. smartphone market.
Mr. Cantor also filed the Department of Justice's first lawsuit alleging algorithmic price manipulation against property management software company RealPage.
In a separate case, the Justice Department is seeking to break up LiveNation and TicketMaster over practices that prosecutors say harm event attendees and artists.
Slater will have broad discretion over the case, most of which is being pursued by a bipartisan coalition of states.
State antitrust regulators are not involved in a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department in September, accusing Visa of illegally monopolizing the debit card payment processing market.
Mr. Slater would also be in a position to continue or discontinue investigations, including one into Nvidia, the semiconductor company that has ridden the artificial intelligence boom to become one of the world's most valuable companies.
