Bondi Aides Corrupted Antitrust Enforcement, Ousted DOJ Official Says
Roger Alford, formerly second-in-command of the antitrust division, calls on a court to scrutinize merger case that led to his firing
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https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy...8?st=54sBFv&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
“… Roger Alford, formerly the antitrust division’s second-in-command, on Monday said two senior aides to Attorney General Pam Bondi had corrupted the department’s typical law-enforcement process for dealing with antitrust lawsuits. The two senior officials were heavily involved in
negotiating a proposed settlement in June that allowed
Hewlett Packard Enterprise to acquire a competitor, Juniper Networks.
… The Justice Department’s antitrust division
sued to block HPE’s bid for Juniper Networks shortly after President Trump took office. The department said in January that merging the two rivals would harm competition in the market for wireless-networking technology.
HPE hired Trump political allies such as Mike Davis and Arthur Schwartz to fight back and help it reach a settlement that would allow the $14 billion deal to close. HPE agreed to sell a small part of its networking business and provide competitors with limited access to technology it acquired from Juniper.
… Alford said Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, is prone to favoring outside lawyers and lobbyists with whom he is friends. Mizelle and another top aide to Bondi, Stanley Woodward, played significant roles in how the department settled with HPE and Juniper in June, Alford said. Trump has nominated Woodward to be the Justice Department’s third-ranking official.
“Chad Mizelle accepts party meetings and makes key decisions depending on whether the request or information comes from a MAGA friend,” Alford said. “Aware of this injustice, companies are hiring lawyers and influence peddlers to bolster their MAGA credentials and pervert traditional law enforcement.”…”
