A top Department of Justice official appeared to fire her chief of staff via X late last week, but then deleted it as she was reportedly overruled by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, Abigail Slater, posted on X Friday that her chief of staff’s detail had concluded. The post was later deleted, and Semafor reported that Bondi overruled Slater’s decision not to renew her chief of staff’s detail on the basis that it wasn’t within Slater’s authority.
“The post was deleted because it is not accurate,” a Department of Justice spokesperson told the outlet.
The bizarre incident marks the latest speed bump during Slater’s tenure, which has seen little action to prevent major corporate mergers at DOJ.
Matt Stoller, a leading antitrust advocate, pointed out in November that Slater has not stopped a single merger since being confirmed in March 2025. Semafor reported that there has been a power struggle within the administration when it comes to Slater’s division. The outlet reported that mergers which have been “challenged or investigated” by the antitrust division of the Department of Justice have ended favorably for the companies who have lobbied to other Trump officials.
The outlet also noted that Vice President JD Vance has given little endorsement to Slater, even after she worked for him in the Senate.
Others feel Slater is leading the antitrust division well, pointing out that Slater is working to break up Ticketmaster’s monopoly.
Slater hasn’t stopped a single merger, which isn’t bs, it’s true. And she’s weak and corrupt. Here’s Tyson’s and Gail giggling at you. https://t.co/8fbNZQimJW
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) November 25, 2025
The Wall Street Journal reported in August that Slater was facing backlash from Trump loyalists within the administration. Around the same time, two of her top deputies were fired after they challenged the terms of the Hewlett Packard Enterprise agreement that was negotiated with Bondi’s direct office. Slater’s allies have argued that Trump-friendly lobbyists have too much influence over DOJ leadership on antitrust issues. (RELATED: DOJ Deep Stater Cosplaying As MAGA Has Ties To Chinese Interests)
Slater has her own history with lobbying. After advising FTC Commissioner Julie Brill, an Obama appointee, Slater then went on to work as General Counsel for the Internet Association, an organization that represented Big Tech in censorship cases. She lobbied in favor of Big Tech’s views on Section 230 against Trump’s reforms in 2017.
Slater also was listed as a member of the Transatlantic Working Group, which advocated for regulating “hate speech” and “viral deception” online. Other members included representatives from Google, Jigsaw and Microsoft.
The report endorsed censoring those who were skeptical towards the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Social media companies have coordinated and reacted significantly more swiftly to COVID-19 disinformation than with previous issues such as anti-vaccine campaigns. Their responses have included posting info boxes with links to trusted institutions, removing apps like Infowars for spreading COVID-19 disinformation, and even deleting misleading tweets from major political figures such as Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro,” the group’s report read. “This illustrates a growing recognition by platforms of their moral/de facto responsibility as good corporate citizens for the content posted on their platforms.”
The Daily Caller reached out to the Department of Justice for additional comment on this story, but did not receive a response.
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