❓WHAT HAPPENED: Roger P. Alford, a former Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) official, has outlined concerns about antitrust enforcement and influence-peddling within the department.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Roger P. Alford, Assistant Attorney General, Gail Slater, Attorney General, Pam Bondi, and other DOJ officials.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Events discussed occurred during Alford’s recent but brief tenure in the DOJ.
💬KEY QUOTE: “I experienced nothing remotely like this when I served at the DOJ in the first Trump administration.” – Roger P. Alford
🎯IMPACT: Allegations of influence-peddling and favoritism raise concerns about the integrity of antitrust enforcement, with broader implications for justice and governance.
Roger P. Alford, who served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the first Trump administration and, until recently, as its principal deputy assistant attorney general in the second Trump administration, has expressed deep concerns about the DOJ’s susceptibility to influence-peddling. In an article published by UnHerd, Alford warned that while some DOJ officials like his former superior Gail Slater uphold MAGA values and the rule of law, there are also “MAGA-in-name-only lobbyists and… DOJ officials enabling them… pursuing a different agenda.”
Alford alleged that senior DOJ officials sidestepped the Antitrust Division to broker a settlement swayed by lobbyists during the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)-Juniper merger. He referenced a “literal backroom meeting over cocktails,” describing such actions as betraying President Donald J. Trump’s populist agenda and the ideal of equal justice under the law.
The National Pulse previously reported that Alford was one of two Antitrust officials pushed out of their roles amid the merger, with Editor-in-Chief Raheem Kassam commenting, “What if I told you this was happening because greedy, fake-MAGA world grifters and lobbyists are upset that the antitrust team was actually doing their job instead of taking cash from big corporates to turn a blind eye to monopolistic practices?”
“To be clear, I have absolutely no reason to think the White House or other departments are involved in the current HPE-Juniper merger scandal. Nor do I think Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is involved,” Alford wrote.
“But I can’t say the same about a small set of actors in senior leadership within the DOJ. I met with the most senior officials of the DOJ regularly, and my concerns aren’t based on conjecture,” he continued, singling out Attorney General Pam Bondi‘s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, and Associate Attorney General-Designee Stanley Woodward for particular criticism.
“I believe that in the HPE-Juniper merger scandal, Mizelle and Woodward acted inconsistent with the populist values of the Trump administration,” he added.
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