❓WHAT HAPPENED: Two key U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division staffers have been fired after pressure from corporate interests and lobbyists aiming to undermine President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to rein in business monopolies.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The DOJ Antitrust Division, Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater, Roger Alford, Bill Rinner, Attorney General Pam Bondi, DOJ Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle, investigative journalist Laura Loomer, The National Pulse Editor-in-Chief Raheem Kassam, lobbyists, and major corporations.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The DOJ Antitrust Division firings were confirmed on Monday, July 28, 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “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?” — Raheem Kassam
🎯IMPACT: The firings raise serious concerns about the future direction of the Antitrust Division and whether the White House will continue to back an America First agenda opposing the consolidation of corporate power.
Two of the top antitrust officials at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have been fired following internal tensions. The firings of Roger Alford and Bill Rinner—both deputies to Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater—raise serious concerns that the nation’s top law enforcement agency is gutting its ability to tackle and restrict consolidation among corporations and the influence of multi-nationals.
“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?” The National Pulse Editor-in-Chief Raheem Kassam wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “Another giant L for Pam Bondi here too, btw. She signed off on this. Remember, her last job was as a lobbyist for nations like Qatar and corporates like Uber, General Motors, and Amazon.”
Slater, a leading voice among conservative and populist legal minds who have broken with the political establishment and pushed for more aggressive antitrust enforcement, has been a significant target of criticism from lobbyists representing entrenched big business and Wall Street interests. These political and corporate establishment interests are upset that Slater and the DOJ Antitrust Division are not rubber-stamping merger requests. Instead, they are fulfilling their legal duty, investigating the market impact of corporate consolidation.
Investigative journalist Laura Loomer, in now-deleted social media posts, accused DOJ staff close to Attorney General Pam Bondi of influence peddling, suggesting the Antitrust Division firings were because of lobbyist complaints, including an effort by Ticketmaster and Live Nation to see the antitrust case against them dropped. According to Loomer’s posts, DOJ chief of staff Chad Mizelle is at the center of the controversy, having intervened and overruled department decisions that could be seen as opposed to corporate interests.
“Now that [Chad Mizelle] has made it clear he is open for business at the DOJ to the highest bidder, other consultants are now putting big price tags on their lobby efforts to influence the DOJ to settle even more anti-Trust cases,” Loomer wrote.
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