Top DOJ antitrust officials fired as tension grows in a Trump administration monopoly-fighting office

Two top Justice Department antitrust officials have been ousted, multiple sources told CBS News. 

Monday’s firings follow internal tension CBS News previously reported on within the Justice Department’s antitrust division, which investigates companies for anticompetitive behavior and sues to prevent monopolies.

The officials, Roger Alford and Bill Rinner, were both top deputies to Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater, who leads the team. Alford was principal deputy assistant attorney general and Rinner served as a deputy assistant attorney general and head of merger enforcement. Both officials served in the antitrust division during President Trump’s first term.

It was unclear why they were fired, but sources said insubordination was cited in the dismissals. The two officials had been placed on administrative leave last week.

Justice Department spokespeople did not immediately comment. CBS News has reached out to Alford and Rinner for comment.

Earlier this month, internal friction within the Justice Department’s antitrust team led to private conversations in the Trump administration about whether to push out some staff or to work to smooth out the issues, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

Slater, who in March took charge of lawsuits against Capital One, Apple, Google and other major companies as head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, still had support from some top officials in the administration, CBS News reported earlier this month. But she and some on her team have been a target of criticism from colleagues and business leaders, according to sources inside and outside the administration. 

There has been tension over the handling of investigations into T-Mobile, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others, sources said. The antitrust division is one of two agencies that protects competition in markets by enforcing the antitrust laws that regulate mergers and business practices that harm consumers, along with the Federal Trade Commission. 

Slater, who entered her role in high regard both in MAGA circles and among left-leaning watchdogs, hasn’t adopted a block-every-merger approach. But some Trump officials have vented that it has taken a substantial amount of internal push-and-pull to land on decisions to reach deals that resolve merger issues, three of the sources said.