Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats have raised concerns about the Department of Justice’s handling of antitrust enforcement under the Trump Administration. In a letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), joined by several Democratic colleagues, questioned recent actions by DOJ’s Antitrust Division regarding Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks.
The senators pointed to what they described as “extreme departures from Department process” in the proposed settlement for the HPE-Juniper deal. The DOJ initially challenged the acquisition on grounds that it would create a duopoly controlling over 70 percent of the enterprise-grade WLAN solutions market. However, just days before trial, DOJ proposed a settlement requiring HPE to divest its Instant On business—a segment serving small- and medium-sized businesses rather than large enterprises.
“These concerns build upon larger issues with the Trump Administration’s abuse of its regulatory and enforcement authority over anti-competitive practices, mergers, acquisitions, and other potential antitrust enforcement activity to secure partisan victories for President Trump at the expense of lower costs for Americans,” the senators wrote.
The letter noted that national security was cited as a rationale for settling but was not mentioned in DOJ’s official filings. Instead, DOJ argued that reduced competition—due in part to Huawei being barred from U.S. markets—would harm consumers.
“These concerns are only exacerbated by lobbying that reportedly induced this settlement, and which appears to have resulted in senior DOJ leadership sidelining the Antitrust Division,” according to the letter.
Reports indicate Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater opposed settling but was overruled by Attorney General Bondi’s Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle. After two top officials in the Antitrust Division did not sign off on the agreement, they were placed on administrative leave and later terminated. The senators allege these actions followed lobbying efforts by HPE involving individuals with ties to President Trump and his administration.
“This lack of transparency, along with the apparent overruling of the subject-matter experts in the Antitrust Division by senior DOJ leadership, signal that DOJ likely handled this case inappropriately. It also calls into question how other enforcement actions will proceed, such as the monopolization suit filed against Live Nation-Ticketmaster last year, now that Live Nation-Ticketmaster has also retained Mike Davis as a lobbyist,” said Senate Democrats in their letter. “This troubling development in the Antitrust Division does not appear to be a one-off, but rather part of a larger trend of the Trump Administration abusing its antitrust regulatory and enforcement authority to secure partisan victories for President Trump’s personal benefit.”
The lawmakers referenced additional examples where they believe antitrust powers were used for political purposes—including UnitedHealth’s acquisition of Amedisys Inc.—and called for transparency and accountability within DOJ’s antitrust processes.
“Ensuring competitive markets exist is crucial to fostering innovation and driving down prices, and the Administration is currently pursuing several other antitrust matters in order to pursue these goals. These matters, however, should not be subject to political interference or weaponized as a means to reward the President’s political allies and punish his enemies,” they wrote.
The senators requested documents related to these decisions from AG Bondi by September 19.
