HP
uber1
https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/6950F840-FB80-FCB0-D505-8AB1FA685F08#-2098
BALLROOM MIKE DAVIS FIXER JUNIPER MERGER MONOP
SEE HEWLETT FAM
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Mike Davis and Stanley Woodward were both involved in controversial dealings related to Hewlett Packard Enterprise's merger with Juniper Networks, where they pressured officials to approve the deal despite objections from the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. Gail Slater, who was the assistant attorney general for the antitrust division, faced significant pressure from both Davis and Woodward during this process.
Wikipedia The American Prospect
Involvement of Mike Davis and Stanley Woodward with Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Overview of the Controversy
Mike Davis and Stanley Woodward played significant roles in the controversial merger between Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Juniper Networks. Their actions raised concerns regarding the integrity of the approval process, particularly in relation to antitrust regulations.
Key Players
| Name | Role | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| Mike Davis | Conservative political strategist and lobbyist | Article III Project, Trump ally |
| Stanley Woodward | Associate Attorney General | U.S. Department of Justice |
| Gail Slater | Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust | U.S. Department of Justice |
Pressure Tactics
Both Davis and Woodward were reported to have pressured Gail Slater to approve the merger despite objections from the Antitrust Division. This included:
Threats: Woodward allegedly threatened to fire Slater's deputies if she did not sign off on the settlement related to the merger.
Political Influence: Their close ties to the Trump administration and lobbying efforts were seen as significant factors in the approval process.
Outcome
The merger faced scrutiny due to the manner in which it was approved, with allegations of a "pay-to-play" environment influencing decisions within the Department of Justice. This situation highlighted concerns about the intersection of politics and legal processes in high-stakes corporate mergers.
Wikipedia The American Prospect
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FLY PENG
What a Million Dollars Now Buys at the DOJ: Mike Davis
February 16, 2026 Davi OttenheimeR
A conservative legal activist, who collected at least $1 million in success fees for getting the DOJ to approve the Hewlett Packard Enterprise-Juniper Networks merger and another million for the Compass-Anywhere deal, used social media this month to celebrate pushing out the DOJ Antitrust Chief Gail Slater.
Mike Davis used an ethnic slur in his attacks on Slater, reminding everyone who’s back in charge.
Former MAGA Attorney Goes Scorched Earth…. Mike Davis and Arthur Schwartz have made a Faustian bargain of trading on relationships with powerful people to reportedly earn million-dollar success fees by helping corporations undermine Trump’s antitrust agenda, hurt working class Americans, break the rules, and then try to cover it up.
When Mike Davis dropped the professional pretense and spread a racist nickname for a Senate-confirmed official he just pushed out, he’s not worried about consequences.
He’s advertising pay-to-play impunity.
The Mechanism
Here’s the simple math. Slater had been confirmed 78-19, in the most bipartisan vote of Trump’s second term after Rubio. She was supposed to be the whole face of “MAGA antitrust,” the populist enforcement wing that would take on Big Tech and corporate monopolies.
Then she discovered MAGA isn’t about rule of law. It’s a dictatorship — chaotic by design, because stability would mean someone could hold the rules steady long enough to enforce them. She found the antitrust division was being bypassed entirely, not to serve policy but to serve whoever could pay the right fixer.
Live Nation hired Davis and Kellyanne Conway to negotiate a settlement directly with senior DOJ officials, cutting the antitrust division and Slater out. When Slater opposed settling the HPE-Juniper merger, AG Bondi’s chief of staff overruled her and fired two top deputies. When Slater and her lawyers recommended an extended review of the Compass-Anywhere real estate merger, DOJ leadership cleared it after Compass’s lawyers went directly to Deputy AG Todd Blanche.
Davis is now gloating that he wrecked antitrust. In a group chat called “Frenemies Fight Club,” he wrote: “Gail was a disaster. I recommended her hiring. And her firing.”
The Cover Story
The Daily Caller reprinted the empty-headed official version: Slater went to a conference in Paris and Bondi canceled her credit cards while alleging lack of authorization for the trip. Slater allegedly lied about HPE. She allegedly leaked to the press.
These read like the standard retaliation template. Cancelled her credit cards? Give the friendly outlet a petty management anecdote about a Paris trip to pollute the news. If the conference had been in South Dakota the disinformation wouldn’t be as barbed. The cover-up wouldn’t land so hard. Who is talking about the million-dollar success fees that have been flowing to the lobbyist who got the antitrust chief fired for doing her job?
What Comes Next
Live Nation’s stock jumped 5.8% when Slater’s departure was announced. The market said what the administration’s talking points are designed to obscure: antitrust enforcement in America is now a concierge service for those who can afford the right lobbyist. The rich get control, to get richer.
The Live Nation trial is set for March 2. Slater’s deputy overseeing the case, Mark Hamer, also left. The division is now run by Omeed Assefi, who Davis describes as “very well liked and respected”, which means compliant. Such a pretty smile, never talks.
Sounds like capture complete.
However there’s a wrinkle. A federal judge has authorized Tunney Act depositions of Davis, Arthur Schwartz, and William Levi for the HPE-Juniper case. That hearing window opens March 23-27. For the first time, the people who ran this dangerous bypass operation will have to answer questions under oath, to an authority they can’t lobby.
Davis calling Slater an ethnic slur isn’t a mistake. It’s his brazen MAGA receipt.
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AInvest
Justice Department Official Accuses Colleagues of "Perverted Justice ...
Aug 18, 2025Former DOJ attorney Roger Alford accuses colleagues Chad Mizelle and Stanley Woodward of "perverting justice" in the antitrust settlement over Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $13 billion takeover of Juniper Networks. Alford calls for a court to block the deal and expresses hope for personnel changes within the DOJ.
flyingpenguin.com
https://www.flyingpenguin.com › what-a-million-dollars-now-buys-at-the-doj
What a Million Dollars Now Buys at the DOJ: Mike Davis
Feb 16, 2026A conservative legal activist, who collected at least $1 million in success fees for getting the DOJ to approve the Hewlett Packard Enterprise-Juniper Networks merger and another million for the Compass-Anywhere deal, used social media this month to celebrate pushing out the DOJ Antitrust
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7 26 We Talked to a Trump Whistleblower. What He Saw Will Shock You.
Jul 7, 2026
There's a set of MAGA lobbyists in DC who can get you anything you want from the White House, legal or not. Ticketmaster, Paramount, crypto companies — they're all exploiting this pay-to-play system.
KROGER REALPAGE UNITED HEALTH AMAZON GGL LINA KHAN // JDV?!
GAIL S ROGER ALFORD BOSS
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[Liz Scheltens] For the last 40 years, across administrations from both parties, politicians have mostly been content to let corporations keep getting bigger and more powerful.
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But in recent years, something has started to shift. [Anchor] The federal government is suing to block the largest supermarket merger in U.S. history...
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...arguing that it would reduce the number of supermarkets, which would mean higher prices.
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Today, the Justice Department and eight states sued software company RealPage, alleging it illegally helped landlords unfairly fix prices and raise rents throughout the country.
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At the end of the first Trump administration, there were very large and significant monopoly cases that were brought against Facebook and against Google.
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[Liz Scheltens] When Lina Khan took over the Federal Trade Commission under President Biden, she and her colleagues in the Department of Justice continued those suits, and filed dozens more.
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[Anchor] Department of Justice has launched an antitrust probe into UnitedHealth. The move is part of the Biden administration’s push to lower drug prices.
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We want him in a very high capacity. Mike Davis. Mike. Thank you, Mike. Where is Mike? Mike is great.
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Mike Davis actually recommended Gail Slater to President Trump for the top antitrust job. Davis has denied the threatening phone call.
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But it is true that a couple of weeks after the election, he started getting big checks from corporations like Hewlett Packard Enterprise, who wanted him to use his connections to push their mergers through.
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[Roger Alford] His salary is $300,000 a month. He has a contingency fee of over $1 million for any successful mergers.
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They hire this lobbyist and the lobbyist starts talking to higher-ups, saying, you like us, we're on your team.
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Just tell them to drop the case. [Liz Scheltens] And they did.
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DOJ sources told the Wall Street Journal that a couple of weeks after the threatening phone call, Gail Slater's boss, quote, “placed a document on her desk.”
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It was a settlement deal written by Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s own lawyers. It was a genuine shock.
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When Gail Slater asked her boss what would happen if she refused to sign it, he told her, quote, “She was too difficult to fire, but he would fire her deputies.” She signed, and then he fired them anyway.
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And we all basically strongly suggested that that was inappropriate. And as a result of that, I was terminated.
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[Anchor] Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, they're up more than 12%, after the DOJ gave the green light for the proposed $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks.
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This is oligarchy in action: company gets sued, they hire a million-dollar fixer with the president's ear to leverage his loyalty and make sure that the suit goes away.
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They get a sweetheart deal, and then, when someone like Roger Alford gets in the way, they make sure he gets fired.
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This type of, let's call it, pay-for-play politics hadn't happened since Watergate. They're dropping cases because they decided someone's a friend.
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That's not the rule of law. That's the opposite of the rule of law.
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A few months later, one of America's most hated companies decided to try the same play for themselves.
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[Anchor] Outrage over Ticketmaster and Live Nation gouging consumers on big concerts.
...
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A bunch of state attorneys general signed on to the suit as well, including Phil Weiser of Colorado and Jonathan Skrmetti of Tennessee.
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I mean, there was tremendous evidence of very aggressive, almost mafia-like tactics.
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We had some witnesses, they would get a phone call and it was basically like, “Hey, nice arena you have there.
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Be a shame if anything happened to it.” You know, we have the internal conversations laughing about how dumb their customers are and how great it is that they can rip ’em off.
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[Anchor] The messages between two ticketing directors saying, “These people are so stupid.” Another message saying, “Robbing them blind, baby.”
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[Liz Scheltens] When President Trump took office in 2025, his Department of Justice decided to continue the Ticketmaster suit. Ticketmaster thought they would try the same play as Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
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They hired Kellyanne Conway, Trump's former campaign manager, as a fixer. They donated to Trump's inaugural fund.
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And they hired Mike Davis, the same fixer who got Hewlett Packard Enterprise their sweetheart deal.
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Davis went after Roger Alford's boss, Gail Slater.
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[Roger Alford] Once it became clear that Gail Slater was going to resolve these cases on the merits and wasn't going to listen to Mike Davis based on arguments other than the merits, he turned on her.
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He directly lobbied the president of the United States to get someone who was committed to enforcing antitrust laws on the merits to be removed.
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[Anchor] The head of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division is out.
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Gail Slater was fired today from the role after months of tension with the Trump administration. [Liz Scheltens] The moment Gail Slater's firing hit the news, Live Nation’s stock price skyrocketed.
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Shareholders were anticipating big payouts on the backs of consumers. [echo] Robbing them blind, baby. And then, two weeks after she was fired...
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[Anchor] The Justice Department has reached a settlement with Live Nation in its antitrust case. Not everyone is on board. The proposed settlement didn’t even rise to the level of a slap on the wrist.
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[Liz Scheltens] Live Nation wouldn't have to sell off Ticketmaster, just a handful of venues.
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So it looked like the same play had worked again: get sued, hire a fixer, get a sweetheart deal.
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But there was one wrinkle for Ticketmaster.
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From my perspective, this was not a sufficient settlement to take care of Tennessee consumers.
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A bunch of those state AGs decided to continue with the suit, even after the Department of Justice settled.
...
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[Phil Weiser] The president put up a social media post and said, let the deal through.
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Now, we don't know exactly what happened behind those scenes, but I want to underscore how unusual that is.
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There was no DOJ investigation when the country's largest real estate brokerage, Compass, wanted to buy its rival Anywhere.
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Now, they're free to saddle middle-class homebuyers with even more junk fees in a housing market we can already barely afford.
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Compass even hired Mike Davis, the same fixer that got HPE and Live Nation their deals.
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But nothing has made the corruption more clear than the Department of Justice's recent approval of the merger between Paramount and Warner Brothers.
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The deal puts one of Trump's top political donors at the head of a media empire that will include CNN, CBS and HBO.
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And according to the Wall Street Journal, the staff attorneys in the antitrust division were leaning toward suing to prevent this merger.
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But again, they were overruled by the top brass at the Department of Justice.
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State AGS are teaming up to challenge the HPE, Nexstar, and Compass mergers in court, and they're considering whether to do the same for Paramount.
...
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise looking to buy Juniper Networks.
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SJMN AN 11 25
As recently as the 1980s, California was still a red state — from Bakersfield to San Diego to Simi Valley to Glendale. Orange County south of Los Angeles was a bastion of conservatism, and the state's famously conservative GOP governors included Ronald Reagan, George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson.
These days, California is a Democratic stronghold. Yet it still has pockets of conservatism, including Silicon Valley tech bros who have allied themselves with President Donald Trump. And according to Mercury News reporter Ethan Baron, that bond is showing no signs of weakening.
Baron, in an article published on November 2, reports, "Silicon Valley technology companies' cozy relationship with President Donald Trump appears to be deepening and bearing fruit, as firms and their leaders show fealty with gifts, policies, and public statements of support, and CEOs show their ability to influence the president on matters of politics and business. In recent weeks, the White House has confirmed that Google, Meta, Apple, and HP donated to the construction of Trump's new White House ballroom, with Santa Clara chip giant Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, later saying he was 'delighted to be part of it'…. Google and YouTube parent Alphabet, in late September, agreed to pay $22 million toward the ballroom, in a settlement over a lawsuit by Trump over his suspension from YouTube after the January 6 insurrection."
Baron adds, "In similar cases, Meta agreed to pay $22 million toward Trump's presidential library, and X agreed to pay a settlement of about $10 million."
Jan English-Lueck, a San Jose State University anthropology professor known for studying the tech industry, told the Mercury News that Silicon Valley tech bros "need to protect the assets of their companies from the very real threats that they could face."
Nolan Higdon, a lecturer at Cal State East Bay lecturer, told the Mercury News, "When they need something, they give him things…. Trump has shown that unless you force him to stop or defeat him, he won’t stop. That begs the question with these tech execs: How much is he going to ask of them and how much are they going to give?"
*Read Ethan Baron's full Mercury News article at this link (subscription required).
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this will be co, see other for family/ fdn
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cpj
Some investigative campaigns however, have run into legal trouble. Back in 2006, the California Attorney General found that private investigators hired by Hewlett Packard to trace leaks to the press had targeted the phone records of nine journalists. Hewlett Packard's general counsel resigned and a court sentenced one of the investigators to three months in jail for identity theft.
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The time has come for these purportedly pro-climate companies to put up or shut up. If they care about the climate, then they must stop funding the anti-climate Chamber and its bogus studies. This is not a radical step to take. Many blue-chip companies have already left the Chamber – some publicly, like Apple, CVS and Pacific Gas & Electric, and others privately, such as Costco, eBay,Hewlett-Packard,General Mills, Kellogg, Kraft Heinz, Mars, Mattel, Mondelēz, Nestlé, Starbucks, Unilever and Walgreens Boots Alliance. Many of these companies quit the Chamber because of the Chamber’s anti-climate work.