The DOJ’s antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim, confirmed that he has spoken with President Donald Trump, but said the president doesn’t call him up directly to discuss topics like the department’s controversial effort to block AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, reported CNBC.
Delrahim, the assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s antitrust division, discussed his relationship with Trump at The New York Times DealBook Conference on Wednesday. Delrahim’s office is reportedly leading several antitrust investigations in the tech industry and earlier this year announced a broad review of tech power.
Anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin, Delrahim was asked if his life would be easier if the president stayed quiet on cases his division is tasked with assessing.
“The president of the United States has the right just like any other citizen,” to speak his mind, Delrahim said, noting that several Democratic senators wrote to him about the AT&T case while it was ongoing.
Delrahim refused to divulge much about the status of the antitrust probes into Big Tech companies. Multiple outlets reported this summer that the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission divided oversight, with the DOJ’s Antitrust Division taking the lead on investigations into Googleand Apple and the FTC taking charge on Facebook and Amazon. At a September congressional hearing, Delrahim and FTC Chairman Joe Simons revealed conflict over that agreement, and Reuters later reported that the antitrust division was looking to open a Facebook probe as well.
Delrahim said there are sometimes conflicts between the agencies but that more often than not, things run smoothly between the two. If he were redesigning the system, though, he said it would be worth rethinking dividing antitrust enforcement across multiple federal and state agencies.
“At some time maybe Congress should take a look at does this all make sense,” he said.
Featured News
DirecTV and Disney Resolve Dispute, Restore Programming for Subscribers
Sep 15, 2024 by
CPI
UK Antitrust Authority Raises Concerns Over Vodafone-Three Merger
Sep 15, 2024 by
CPI
Brazilian Supreme Court Lifts Freeze on Starlink Accounts, Transfers $3.3 Million to National Treasury
Sep 15, 2024 by
CPI
Steptoe Expands Antitrust Practice with Key London Hire
Sep 15, 2024 by
CPI
Instant Ad Auctions at the Heart of Google’s Federal Monopoly Case
Sep 15, 2024 by
CPI
Antitrust Mix by CPI
Antitrust Chronicle® – Canada & Mexico
Sep 3, 2024 by
CPI
Competitive Convergence: Mexico’s 30-Year Quest for Antitrust Parity with its Northern Neighbor
Sep 3, 2024 by
Francisco Javier Núñez Melgoza
Competition and Digital Markets in North America: A Comparative Study of Antitrust Investigations in Mexico and the United States
Sep 3, 2024 by
Julio Garcia
Recent Antitrust Development in Mexico: COFECE’s Preliminary Report on Amazon and Mercado Libre
Sep 3, 2024 by
Alejandra Palacios Prieto
The Cost of Making COFECE Disappear
Sep 3, 2024 by
Mateo Fernández