A former senior antitrust official at the Department of Justice has accused Attorney General Pam Bondi‘s leadership of allowing MAGA-aligned corporate lobbyists to “rule” over antitrust enforcement.
Roger Alford, who was fired in July for alleged insubordination, claims that political appointees under Bondi’s direction overruled career staff and settled a major tech merger—Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks—in a manner that undermined the rule of law.
Alford, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, served as a deputy assistant attorney general with the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department during President Donald Trump‘s first and second terms.
Newsweek reached out to the DOJ and Hewlett Packard Enterprise for comment via email.
Why It Matters
The allegations raised by the former DOJ official spotlight the potential for political influence to override career staff and the rule of law in antitrust enforcement. Antitrust oversight exists to protect competition, prevent monopolies, and safeguard consumers from higher prices or reduced innovation.
The case also underscores the broader implications of partisanship in federal regulatory agencies, with ripple effects for markets, companies, and everyday consumers.
Alex Brandon/AP
What To Know
In his first remarks since being ousted, Alford described a struggle inside the Justice Department’s antitrust division between “MAGA reformers and MAGA-in-name-only lobbyists.”
“The MAGA-in-name-only lobbyists and the DOJ officials enabling them are…determined to exert and expand their influence and enrich themselves as long as their friends are in power,” Alford said at the Tech Policy Institute Aspen Forum.
“Will America be governed by the rule of law or the rule of lobbyists?…The Department of Justice is today the central front in this battle. Their loyalty is not to the president’s antitrust agenda or to rebuild confidence and integrity in the DOJ,” he continued.
“Regardless of the outcome, their commitment is to exert and expand their influence and enrich themselves as long as their friends and supplicants are in power.”
Alford was dismissed amid a settlement involving the $14 billion merger between Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Juniper Networks. He objected…
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