The Senate on Tuesday approved Gail Slater, President Trump’s nominee to steer the Justice Division antitrust division, by a vote of 78-19.
Ms. Slater, a veteran tech and media lawyer, has pledged to be skeptical of company energy throughout the economic system, and has been notably essential of energy within the tech business.
At her affirmation listening to, she expressed concern about the dominance of some online platforms, including it’s potential that somebody “could be disappeared from the web fairly simply.”
Her affirmation comes as Wall Road and Silicon Valley watch to see if the Trump administration continues the aggressive scrutiny of company America pursued beneath former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Ms. Slater inherits two Justice Division antitrust lawsuits towards Google. The primary, which was filed in 2020 under the first Trump administration, is a landmark case through which a judge ruled last year that Google was a monopolist in search. A decide continues to be contemplating the second case, through which the federal government has claimed Google’s management of advert know-how is anticompetitive.
On Friday, the Justice Division continued its aggressive approach to the Google search case, reiterating its Biden-era demand that the courtroom drive the corporate to promote its fashionable Chrome browser. The decide in that case is scheduled in April to listen to arguments from either side on how one can repair the issue.
The Justice Division additionally filed a lawsuit final yr towards Apple over claims that its tightly knit system of units and software program makes it difficult for shoppers to go away.
Ms. Slater is a longtime Washington lawyer who previously worked for the Web Affiliation, a shuttered group that represented large tech corporations like Google and Meta, in addition to Roku and Fox Corp. She additionally labored as an adviser to Vice President JD Vance when he was serving within the Senate, and served within the Nationwide Financial Council throughout Mr. Trump’s first time period.
