The Trump administration forced out the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division after clashes with top officials.
Gail Slater, 54, announced on Thursday that she was leaving her role as Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, after serving nearly a year in office.
“It is with great sadness and abiding hope that I leave my role as AAG for Antitrust today,” Slater wrote in a post on X, adding that it was “the honor of a lifetime to serve in this role.”
She was confirmed to the position in March with 78 votes—more than almost any official in Trump’s second term.
Although Slater’s statement suggests she left voluntarily, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News and The Guardian that she was ousted by top Trump administration officials after losing the trust of Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Vice President JD Vance.
Slater had previously served as special assistant to President Donald Trump on technology, telecommunications, and cybersecurity issues during his first term, and advised Vance on economic policy when he was a senator.
The decision comes as Slater’s division was overseeing the review of the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition, a deal that has sparked a fierce battle between Netflix and Paramount and drew intensified scrutiny after Trump, 79, said in December that he would be involved, before later telling NBC that the “Justice Department will handle it” and that he “shouldn’t be involved.”
In response to Slater’s departure, Bondi—who, according to The Guardian, reiterated to the White House in recent weeks that she had irreconcilable differences with Slater over the management of the division—thanked her “for her service to the Antitrust Division which works to protect consumers, promote affordability, and expand economic opportunity.”
Tensions between Bondi and Slater began in July, when the then-antitrust chief, who had promised to wield a “scalpel” in antitrust enforcement in the tech industry, sought to block a $14 billion merger between the large technology company Hewlett Packard Enterprise and its competitor, Juniper Networks.
Following weeks of internal disagreements, the Department of Justice allowed the deal to proceed but fired the division’s two most senior antitrust enforcers after a heated internal debate over the merger.
In August, one of the fired enforcers, Roger Alford said that decisions in the handling of mergers are made “depending on whether the request or information comes from a MAGA friend,” and accused the DOJ of “pervert[ing] justice.”
The dispute stemmed in part from Hewlett Packard Enterprise hiring lawyers with ties to administration officials, a move The Wall Street Journal reported Slater opposed, saying her team should not be subject to political interference. According to the outlet, Slater also opposed both the firings and the final agreement.
“It makes you wonder how long Gail herself can survive,” William Kovacic, a former Republican chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, told the Journal at the time, emphasizing that the firings were a sign that “no dissent or active debate will be tolerated.”
According to Semafor, in the days leading up to Slater’s ousting, Bondi told her that she lacked the authority to decline to renew her chief of staff’s expiring contract. Slater had already posted on social media that her chief of staff, Sara Matar, had “concluded” her detail, but later deleted the post.
One person familiar with Slater’s firing told The Guardian that she had been isolated even from her closest ally, Vance, who reportedly grew frustrated with her claims that she had his protection.
Sources also told CBS News that administration officials questioned whether Slater prioritized Trump’s policies or her own agenda, while some officials defended her as deeply principled.
In the same week as Slater’s departure, Mark Hamer, the second-in-command of the Antitrust Division, also announced that he was leaving.
In response to Slater’s post, many social media users expressed frustration with the DOJ.
“I didn’t always agree with you, but I had faith you intended to enforce the law as you believed best,” one user wrote, adding that “it was clear external forces were tying and forcing” Slater’s hands.
“This is awful. I worry the replacement will be an incompetent lap dog,” another user responded to Slater’s statement on X. “I guess competency is not a skill the Trump Administration seeks,” they added.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Justice Department and White House for comment.
