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.