By Jody Godoy
(Reuters) -The head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division criticized what she said were problematic tactics used by some Big Law firms in antitrust cases on Friday, saying recent incidents where courts have chastised Alphabet’s Google and Apple for hiding or destroying evidence are “just the tip of the iceberg.”
Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater went on the offensive against “tactics of obstruction and gamesmanship” in her first public address since DOJ leadership fired two of her deputies after Slater pushed back on orders to settle a case on the eve of trial. One of the deputies has spoken out, alleging that DOJ leadership allowed politically connected lobbyists to override prosecutors.
“Unfortunately, we at the Antitrust Division have concluded that a few actors — many of them at Big Law firms — can undermine sound antitrust enforcement for everyone,” Slater said at a Federalist Society event in Columbus, Ohio, according to her prepared remarks.
A longtime antitrust attorney and former economic adviser to JD Vance, Slater was appointed in March to lead the DOJ’s antitrust division, which enforces laws blocking anticompetitive business conduct.
She has spoken often about how antitrust enforcement can deliver economic benefits for U.S. President Donald Trump’s working-class base, by going after practices that raise the cost of food, housing and healthcare.
But that populist mission is running up against “MAGA-In-Name-Only lobbyists” who seek to leverage influence to settle cases, Roger Alford, Slater’s former deputy, said in a speech in Aspen, Colorado, on August 18.
After Slater pushed back on orders from DOJ leadership to settle a case that sought to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks, Alford and another deputy were fired by DOJ leadership in July. Democratic lawmakers have called on the court overseeing the case to probe how the settlement was reached.
Slater said on Friday that she is convening a task force within the antitrust division to crack down on abusive practices. She dubbed the effort “comply with care” — a riff on Google’s “communicate with care” policy, which prosecutors said allowed Google to wrongly withhold tens of thousands of documents by labeling them “attorney/client privileged.”
“For parties that choose to push the boundaries of fair play or even flout them outright, we will not shy away from pursuing them, taking advantage of the full range of available penalties. And we will not hesitate to bring issues to court,” she said.
(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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