stoller, Matt
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Matt Stoller is the director of research for the American Economic Liberties Project. Stoller is the author of Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. He is a former advisor to the Senate Budget Committee. ^13
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From Watergate to Live Nation: Inside an antitrust scandal the Trump Department of Justice
9.73M subscribers
167,499 views Mar 29, 2026 #DOJ #Trump #Politics
An antitrust scandal within the Department of Justice is threatening to break wide open. The Wall Street Journal reports on Mike Davis, a Washington lobbyist with links to President Trump. He reportedly wields extraordinary influence bypassing antitrust regulators on major corporate deals with “bare-knuckle tactics” and alleged threats.
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but appears ready to break open into a Watergate-level crisis for the THE PRESIDENT,
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WHILE IT'S TEMPTING TO RECALL WATERGATE HAVING BEEN TRIGGERED BY A BREAK-IN,
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IT ACTUALLY HAD ITS ROOTS WITH AN ANTITRUST SCANDAL AND A THREAD THAT TWO LAWMAKERS REFUSED TO STOP PULLING ON.
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IN THE EARLY In the early 1970s,
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the Nixon administration stood accused of interfering in a Justice Department case against ITT, International Telephone and Telegraph.
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Now you'll remember it if you're a person of a certain age, as I am. ITT was a conglomerate that controlled telecom,
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hotels, defense contracts and plenty of other things.
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The allegation is that the DOJ went easy on ITT's antitrust case, in exchange for ITT funding,
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part of the 1972 Republican National Convention.
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Corporate money in exchange for government favor in a deal. A Texas Democrat named Wright Patman,
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then a chair of the House Banking Committee, tried to investigate.
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But Patman was blocked by members of his own party, Democratic Party,
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who called it too risky a thing to do in an election year.
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So Patman passed the info he had to a Democratic senator, Sam Irvin.
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Irvin's committee, the Senate Watergate Committee, ran with it. Then the courts. Then the press. Then more congressional probes.
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Piece by piece, the scandal came into focus. The ITT anti-trust case may seem obscure today,
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but it revealed the administration's willingness to bend rules for political and corporate gain, setting the stage for the Watergate break-in,
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which is the part of the scandal. most Americans remember.
....
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which is the part of the scandal. most Americans remember.
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As investors began digging into these financial and political connections,
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the Nixon campaign grew increasingly paranoid about leaks and opposition research.
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That fear and suspicion led to the infamous break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.
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It triggered the historic investigations that forced a sitting president to resign just two years later.
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And that history matters today because what The Wall Street Journal has uncovered inside the current Justice Department may be the Trump administration's first antitrust domino.
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And it's already putting people inside the administration on high alert.
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This is a good story, so I want you to pay attention to this. The journal describes a scandal that, quote,
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casts a shadow over the Justice Department's integrity and has alarmed even some Trump loyalists in the department, end quote.
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And at the center of it is this man, Mike Davis. Now, pay attention to him. To understand Mike Davis's role,
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you've got to understand how he got here. After the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago,
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Mike Davis became one of Donald Trump's most aggressive public defenders, making thousands of media appearances, positioning himself as a top outside legal ally,
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not officially part of Donald Trump's team.
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In Davis' own words, quote, I have a very good relationship with the president, and it became very strong when I was just about the only person who was defending him on TV after the Mar-a-Lago raid, end quote.
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Trump, as expected, rewarded that loyalty publicly,
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calling Davis tough as hell on the campaign trail and someone he wanted in a, quote, very high capacity.
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After the election, Davis helped recommend key figures to lead antitrust enforcement,
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including this woman, Gail Slater,
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whom Trump nominated as attorney assistant attorney general to run the Justice Department's antitrust division.
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A massive job when you're in an administration that wants a lot of deals to go through.
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Donald Trump got a lot of money from massive corporations to ease up on approval for deals. And then, by his own account,
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Mike Davis turned around and bragged to the same officials that he'd helped install that corporate clients were,
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quote, beating his door down because of his amazing White House access.
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That's according to The Wall Street Journal as well.
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Beating his door down. Let's just let that sit for a second. Mike Davis helped pick the referees, the regulators.
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Then he showed up to play the game.
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And when those referees refused to play ball the way he wanted them to according to multiple accounts,
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they all lost their jobs but I'm going to get there in a minute,
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I don't want to get away from this story so stay with me.
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Davis has cultivated what the Wall Street Journal described as a crass street fighter persona and one example,
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he reportedly told former congresswoman Gabby Giffords who you'll recall survived an assassination attempt in 2011 to F off after she spoke out about gun violence.
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The Wall Street Journal notes that he's multiple. He's had multiple suspensions from X, formerly Twitter.
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This is who Mike Davis is. But that persona isn't bluster. It appears to be operational. The former FTC chair, William Kovachik,
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appointed by President George W. Bush, put it plainly.
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Lobbyists who once thrived behind the scenes now loudly tout their connections and wins. Davis, he said, is the face of this movement.
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In previous administrations, Kovachik noted,
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you would never want to be seen holding the knife. Once you've got the background, let's get the cases now.
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A $14 billion merger last year, Hewlett-Packard Enterprises and Juniper Networks.
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Career antitrust lawyers tried to block this deal,
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arguing it would reduce competition in a critical tech sector.
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You can be excused if you don't remember anything about this case, because with all the news last year, it was hard to make it make sense.
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Instead, regulators pushed for a pretty standard fix.
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They required the merged company to sell off key assets so that it is less concentrated and market dominating.
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That's how antitrust enforcement is supposed to work so that one company doesn't become too controlling.
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But according to a sworn deposition from the DOJ official Roger Alford,
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testimony that was filed as part of a formal Tunney Act proceeding, I'll tell you about that in a second.
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Mike Davis, the lawyer I've been telling you about,
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called the antitrust chief at the Department of Justice, Gail Slater. Remember the one that he helped get into the job?
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And he said this, quote, if you don't approve this settlement, I will destroy you. I will destroy your job at the DOJ.
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Slater was understandably shaken enough to report the call immediately.
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Davis denies he said it, but the allegation was made under oath by a senior Justice Department official in formal leading proceedings.
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So if someone's lying here, someone's going to get in big trouble.
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When the Justice Department's career lawyers tried to block the Hewlett-Packard Juniper merger in order to protect competition,
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bypassing the very people responsible for enforcing the law. Again, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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Then came one of the most extraordinary moments of this whole story. I hope you're still with me. It's a long story, but it's really interesting.
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A senior Department of Justice official walked into Gail Slater's office and placed a settlement term sheet
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on her desk written by Hewlett-Packard's own lawyers, according to the journal. Written not by government regulators,
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but by the company seeking regulator approval. The document dropped off key asset divestiture, dropped the key asset divestiture requirement,
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which would have required Hewlett-Packard to sell off certain assets,
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the very condition that was meant to prevent them from becoming a monopoly. When Slater asked her superior, the associate attorney general Stanley Woodward,
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what would happen if she refused to sign?
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He reportedly told her he would fire her deputies, according to the Wall Street Journal. The very next day, the deal was announced.
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Weeks later, her deputies were terminated. Months after that, Gail Slater,
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the person Davis himself helped install and then allegedly threatened, was out of the department.
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According to the Journal, Mike Davis pushed for Gail Slater's removal and then celebrated it publicly the way he is in more than a dozen posts on X.
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In his own deposition, he acknowledged recommending her firing to quote anyone who would listen. Notably, the case is far from over, by the way,
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33 state attorneys general refused to join the settlement and are continuing the fight.
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In court filings, they wrote quote the series of events that led to the settlement are unprecedented and should shock the conscience.
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Threats were made against the head of the antitrust division and her top deputies. The U .S.
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completely abdicated its role as a principled defender of antitrust laws and through the corrupt lobbying process has abandoned any semblance of a reasoned and principled decision-making process,
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end HE IS NOT GOING TO BE DONE. HE IS NOT GOING TO BE DONE. NOW, HERE'S THE THING.
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AFTER WATERGATE, CONGRESS PASSED SOMETHING I MENTIONED EARLIER CALLED THE TUNNY ATTORNEY GENERAL,
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AND I WANTED TO TO PREVENT EXACTLY THIS KIND OF CORRUPTION, REQUIRING PARTIES TO DISCLOSE MEETINGS, CONTACTS and communications.
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But investigators say key meetings with lobbyists were never disclosed.
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Back channel contacts were left off of official records.
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Text messages involving Davis were never produced.
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That missing paper trail is a central CONCERN FOR MATT STOLER,
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THE RESEARCH DIRECTOR AT THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC LIBERTY PROJECT AND ONE OF THE COUNTRY'S SHARPEST OUTSIDE ANALYSTS OF ANTITRUST AND MONOPOLY POWER WHO HAS
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been tracking these cases and flagging the significance of those gaps in the record. Because this isn't just one case.
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In a separate merger involving real estate giant Compass, antitrust enforcers called for a deeper investigation.
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Compass hired Mike Davis to help push the acquisition. According to the journal's reporting,
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the company wanted to avoid a second request,
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which is a routine part of antitrust enforcement in which an agency asked for more information to decide whether to block or approve a deal.
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As the Wall Street Journal noted, Slater wanted one.
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Slater was overruled and the deal went through right in the middle of a national housing crisis. And then, like I said, this is not done.
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Then came the case you might actually have heard of even if you don't know the back story. Live Nation Entertainment and its ticketing arm, Ticketmaster,
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one of the biggest antitrust cases in the country,
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accusing Live Nation of using its absolute dominance over concerts,
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venues and ticketing to crush competition and drive up prices. I'm sure a story you're pretty familiar with.
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The government argued that the company controls roughly half the concert promotion market.
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The general rules in government is no company should control more than a third of anything. Live Nation controls half.
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Court filings describe internal company conversations about how stupid their customers are and how they were robbing their customers
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blind the antitrust staff at the department of justice was actively litigating this case in federal court when suddenly a settlement
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appeared negotiated above their heads antitrust regulators were completely shut out of the process. Not once, not twice, but throughout,
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according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal and by Matt Stoller. And here's where it gets extraordinary. According to The Wall Street Journal,
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citing people familiar with the conversations, Donald Trump was personally calling aides, asking why the case hadn't been settled. What's the holdup? He asked.
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The Journal reports that Trump heard about the case from Ari Emanuel,
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the Hollywood superagent and former Live Nation board member who reportedly urged Donald Trump to get this solved.
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On March 3rd, Trump hosted a controversial White House meeting with the Live Nation CEO Michael Rapinoe, the Attorney General Pam Bondi,
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and Gail Slater's acting replacement. Remember, Gail Slater's gone now. That same day, a settlement was signed,
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and the company avoided a breakup.
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Critics called the outcome an effective corporate pardon of powerful monopoly. As the Journal put it, quote,
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it was an extraordinary role for a president to play in a routine antitrust investigation. The federal judge's reaction, by the way, was not nearly as subtle.
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The DOJ's own lead trial attorney told the court, I only saw the term sheet when you did. Read that again.
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The nation's top antitrust enforcers standing in front of a judge in a federal court telling the judge that they were kept completely in the dark about a settlement in a case that they were actively prosecuting.
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The judge called it outrageous, quote, it shows absolute disrespect for the court, for the jury, for this entire process,
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and it is entirely unacceptable, end End quote. Guess who Live Nation had on its retainer?
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Mike Davis. According to the Journal's reporting,
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Davis earns fees across his client portfolio that can reach 300 $500 ,000 a month representing companies with billions on the line.
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In his own words, I know the people. I know the pressure points. I know how to win, end quote. Watergate didn't begin with a break-in.
pt2
15,999 views Mar 29, 2026 #Trump #DOJ #Politics
Matt Stoller of the American Economic Liberties Project says a growing Trump-era antitrust scandal is part of a broader corruption crisis. With state attorneys general forcing corporate officials to sit through depositions, Stoller argues these are just the tip of the iceberg. He adds that if Congress investigates, they’re likely to uncover Watergate-level corruption. “There are dozens of depositions just sitting there waiting for any member of Congress to pick up, read and say, hey, let's, let's look into this… let's look at insider trading. Let's look at this potential bribery, etc."
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American Economic Liberties Project.
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It's a nonprofit that advocates for corporate accountability and enforcement of antitrust regulations.
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Stoller is the co-host of the Organized Money podcast. Matt, thanks for being with us. Hey, thanks for having me.
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Matt, I don't know how I don't know how many people who were out at the No Kings protest were protesting some version of corruption in the government.
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But this is part of that. This is part of that corruption.
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Somehow, people get money from corporations and corporations getting easy go of it when they're trying to do things that are counter to the interests of the American people.
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Yeah, we have a corruption crisis and the oligarchy that people dislike,
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the hatred of what powerful individuals are doing, the concentration of power in the hands of a few is a direct result of this corruption.
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I mean, you know, the specifics of each case,
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whether it's Hewlett-Packard or Compass anywhere, they're pretty boring.
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But the point is, it's about people extracting in individual markets.
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And markets, whether it's, you know, Wi-Fi systems,
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which is what Hewlett-Packard was selling or, you know, real estate brokerage systems, or, you know, which is Compass Anywhere, or ticketing.
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This is the guts of the economy.
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And when you consolidate power in one of those markets, you are generating inequality, you're generating more oligarchy. And if you do it across enough markets,
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that's what you have.
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And here we see that there is a direct link between corruption,
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corporate power, oligarchy, and the increasing authoritarianism that we're seeing in politics.
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Yeah, because there's a lot of regulatory things that go on that people wouldn't agree with, right?
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People think, thought for many years that regulators give companies a pass.
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But there's a general understanding in society that when it comes to things to do with consumers, one company shouldn't control sort of more than a third of stuff.
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There are people in my audience who buy tickets to concerts or buy them for their families, who realize, wait, why does this cost the way it does? Because somebody's not on the ball.
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These little ways in which you steal money from people add up....
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And when you consolidate power in one of those markets, you are generating inequality, you're generating more oligarchy. And if you do it across enough markets,
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that's what you have.
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And here we see that there is a direct link between corruption,
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corporate power, oligarchy, and the increasing authoritarianism that we're seeing in politics.
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Yeah, because there's a lot of regulatory things that go on that people wouldn't agree with, right?
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People think, thought for many years that regulators give companies a pass.
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But there's a general understanding in society that when it comes to things to do with consumers, one company shouldn't control sort of more than a third of stuff.
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There are people in my audience who buy tickets to concerts or buy them for their families, who realize, wait, why does this cost the way it does? Because somebody's not on the ball.
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These little ways in which you steal money from people add up.
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Yeah, I mean, this the this is not the the it's not the first time we've seen corruption. I mean, there was huge amounts.
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This is a this problem has been going on for 40 years.
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It's just that it's so much more extreme and it's so much more obvious at this point, and the way that Trump is doing it,
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and people like Mike Davis and Stanley Woodward and Pam Bondi, I mean, it's━and corporations. I mean, the general counsel of Hewlett-Packard,
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John Schultz was heavily involved in quarterbacking this situation.
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So it's just a more extreme version of overt collusion between corporate elites and political elites,
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in this case,
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the Republican Party and the Trump administration.
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Honestly, we've got to have a word for something that is both shocking and obvious,
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because that's what I find when I'm looking at these cases. Both shocking and obvious. Yeah, shocking and obvious. It's probably some German word. Everybody knows this is happening.
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I'm just looking at the details,
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but I just want people to know the details do back up your instinct that something is really, really rotten.
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That's right, because it's a very complicated story to tell,
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