Biden’s DOJ antitrust head to step down, Reuters reports

Biden’s DOJ antitrust head to step down, Reuters reports


US Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, with Attorney General Merrick Garland (L), speaks during a press conference announcing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, at the Justice Department in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2024. 

Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

U.S. Department of Justice antitrust head Jonathan Kanter said on Tuesday that he will step down on Friday, capping off a three-year tenure in which he aimed to reinvigorate competition law in the U.S.

Kanter and his counterpart at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan, have sought to revive antitrust enforcement in the U.S. as a check on corporate power, drawing praise from Democrats and some Republicans.

“Plutocracy is its own kind of dictatorship,” Kanter said in a farewell address on Tuesday. “When companies larger and more powerful than most world governments threaten individual liberty with coercive private taxation and regulation, it threatens our way of life,” he said.

Some attorneys and business groups have criticized Khan and Kanter’s agenda and supported a return to a more limited view of antitrust that has prevailed for four decades.

But President-elect Donald Trump’s antitrust picks are not seen as likely to drastically curtail enforcement.

Gail Slater, an aide to incoming Vice President JD Vance, is poised to take over for Kanter once she is confirmed. Before being tapped as Trump’s running mate, Vance praised Khan’s efforts and said that corporations can engage in “tyrannical” behavior.

At least until Trump takes office, Kanter’s deputy Doha Mekki will lead the antitrust division. After that point, Trump could appoint a different acting head of the division.

Kanter has kicked the DOJ’s antitrust division into high gear, bringing cases against Apple, Alphabet’s Google, Ticketmaster and Visa, and winning a groundbreaking legal victory over Google in a case over its dominance in online search that was brought during Trump’s first administration.

The DOJ under Kanter also brought cases that successfully block a tie up between JetBlue and American, JetBlue’s proposed $3.8 billion merger with Spirit Airlines and the $2.2 billion merger of Penguin Random House, the world’s largest book publisher, and rival Simon & Schuster.

Kanter warned in his speech that the DOJ’s antitrust work faces an existential threat without full access to funding from the merger filing fees it collects.



Source

U.S. tariffs take center stage but China and the EU are quietly clashing
Politics

U.S. tariffs take center stage but China and the EU are quietly clashing

European Union and Chinese flags are displayed side by side in the meeting room where Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with European Council President Antonio Costa in Brussels, Belgium on July 2, 2025. Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images The U.S. tariff saga has stolen global spotlight from trade tensions between China and the European […]

Read More
Trump’s 50% Brazil tariff stretches emergency powers already facing court challenge
Politics

Trump’s 50% Brazil tariff stretches emergency powers already facing court challenge

United States President Donald Trump speaks to the Press before departs at the White House to Alligator Alcatraz, Florida on July 1, 2025, in Washington DC. Celal Gunes | Anadolu | Getty Images President Donald Trump’s politically charged new tariff threat — a blanket 50% duty on imports from Brazil — stretches an interpretation of […]

Read More
Trump administration launches probe of DEI policy at George Mason University
Politics

Trump administration launches probe of DEI policy at George Mason University

Statue of George Mason on campus of George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Robert Knopes | UCG | Universal Images Group | Getty Images The Department of Education said Thursday that it has opened an investigation into George Mason University’s hiring and promotion practices, the second federal probe of the Fairfax, Virginia, school launched in the […]

Read More