Trump officials oust Abigail Slater as DOJ’s antitrust chief, sources say

Top Trump administration officials had decided to oust Justice Department antitrust chief Abigail Slater and had discussions with her shortly before she announced on social media that she was leaving the department, sources told CBS News. 

Slater didn’t cite a reason for her departure in her statement on X, where she wrote, “It is with great sadness and abiding hope that I leave my role as AAG for Antitrust today.”

But she had lost the trust of Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

In her post as assistant attorney general for antitrust, she determined whether business merger deals would be approved or get derailed, and her every move was closely watched by the business community. 

Trump officials believed Slater had undermined pending cases because of disagreements with leadership and had disobeyed requests, including to not embark on expensive travel to Europe and on other matters, two sources said. On one occasion, Slater angered Bondi when she traveled to a conference in Paris without Bondi’s permission, prompting Bondi to cut off access to Slater’s government credit cards, one source said.

Vice President JD Vance was aware of the fraught dynamics with Slater at the agency, two sources said.

Bondi in a statement to CBS News said: “On behalf of the Department of Justice, we thank Gail Slater for her service to the Antitrust Division which works to protect consumers, promote affordability, and expand economic opportunity.”

Slater had been on the job for less than a year. Her exit marks the end of a short tenure that was fraught with tension between her office and senior department leaders, sources told CBS News.

Justice officials have placed Omeed Assefi in the role as acting antitrust chief, three sources said.

Earlier this month, Semafor reported that Slater had announced on her X account that her chief of staff would be stepping down, only to later delete the post. According to Semafor, Slater had sought to terminate Sara Matar by not renewing her contract, but was overruled by Bondi.

And amid a dispute related to the Justice Department’s settlement greenlighting Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks, Slater also fired Roger Alford, who had served in the first Trump administration and was Slater’s top deputy, and Bill Rinner, a former counsel at hedge fund Apollo Global Management who was in charge of merger enforcement. 

In a scathing speech in August, Alford blasted “MAGA-In-Name-Only lobbyists and DOJ officials” who were pursuing an antitrust agenda that curried favor with special interests.