Department of Justice and Antitrust Policy

CBS reports that senior Trump administration officials decided to remove Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater as head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and held discussions with her shortly before she publicly announced her resignation on X without giving a reason. Multiple DOJ sources say Slater had lost the confidence of Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who believed she had undermined pending antitrust cases, disobeyed directives, and took expensive foreign travel — including a Paris conference trip that allegedly led Bondi to cut off her government credit cards — without approval. Slater, who had been in the job less than a year and oversaw decisions on whether major corporate mergers proceed or get blocked, described leaving with “great sadness and abiding hope” and praised Antitrust Division staff. Bondi issued a bland thank‑you statement and said nothing about the internal dispute. Her ouster raises fresh questions about how much independence DOJ’s competition cops have under Trump‑era political leadership and whether big cases now in the pipeline will be steered in a more politically compliant, business‑friendly direction.