One senior-level official in President Donald Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) has been fired, after she clashed with the White House on a case she was prosecuting.
CNN reported Thursday that Gail Slater — who was an assistant attorney general overseeing the DOJ's antitrust division — has been terminated after being in her role for roughly a year. According to CNN's Kaitlan Collins' unnamed sources within the DOJ, Slater had been "repeatedly at odds with Attorney General Pam Bondi and the West Wing for months." Slater addressed her apparent firing in an X post on Thursday.
"It is with great sadness and abiding hope that I leave my role as AAG for Antitrust today," she wrote. "It was indeed the honor of a lifetime to serve in this role."
Collins reported that Slater's firing may be due to her prosecution of Oak View Group co-founder Tim Leiweke, who was indicted last year for allegedly conspiring to rig the bidding process for a planned arena in Austin, Texas. Slater's office accused him of forging an agreement with the CEO of a competing company to steer a contract to his company, which provides services to live entertainment venues.
"As outlined in the indictment, the Defendant rigged a bidding process to benefit his own company and deprived a public university and taxpayers of the benefits of competitive bidding," Slater said in a press release. "The Antitrust Division and its law enforcement partners will continue to hold executives who cheat to avoid competition accountable."
However, Trump pardoned Leiweke in December of last year. The Oak View Group co-founder offered his "profound gratitude to President Trump" after the pardon, adding that the president gave him and his wife "a new lease on life with which we will be grateful and good stewards."
Slater also recently made headlines after she signed a conflict of interest waiver for another DOJ attorney in the antitrust division. Attorney Jessica Leal had previously recused herself from a lawsuit against Visa, citing an unnamed family investment worth more than $25,000. However, Leal's supervisor pushed for her to be put back on the case, and successfully convinced Slater to sign an ethics waiver despite acknowledging Leal's investment would likely be impacted directly by her work on the Visa case.
