Fired #2 Official at Antitrust Division Decries Corruption at Justice Department
The antitrust division may need state attorneys general to join federal cases 'as a check on influence peddling.'
ASPEN, Colo., August 18, 2025 – The former No. 2 official in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division said here Monday that two top officials at the Justice Department have “perverted justice and acted inconsistently with the rule of law” in settling a technology merger.
Roger Alford, the former deputy to Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater, said that senior Justice Department leaders had let “corrupt lobbyists” for the tech company HPE thwart antitrust enforcement by settling its merger with Juniper, which he called a “scandal.”
Appealing to President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, he called for immediate policy and personnel changes. He framed his remarks as “The Rule of Law Versus the Rule of Lobbyists,” and referred five times to “bribe” or “bribes” in describing the root of corrupt practices at the Justice Department.
In a speech at the Technology Policy Institute’s forum here, Alford – who has now returned to being Notre Dame law professor – framed an internal struggle “between genuine MAGA reformers and MAGA-in-Name-Only lobbyists,” and said the stakes were whether the country is governed by “the rule of law or the rule of lobbyists.”
“America must have one tier of justice for all,” he said.
To be clear, I have absolutely no reason to think the White House or other departments are involved in the current HPE/Juniper merger scandal. Nor do I think Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is involved. I met with him almost every week and I never had a negative experience with him.
“There are things I don’t know, but I perceive him to be a man of character who is leading the DOJ under extremely difficult circumstances,” Alford continued.
“The core problem is simple: [Attorney General] Bondi has delegated authority to leaders like her Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle and Associate Attorney General nominee Stanley Woodward who do not share her commitment to the rule of law and to one tier of justice for all," he said.
Alford urged a federal judge to probe the settlement through Tunney Act proceedings and said, “I hope the court blocks the HPE/Juniper merger. If you knew what I knew, you would hope so too.”
“The Department of Justice is now overwhelmed with lobbyists with little antitrust expertise going above the Antitrust Division leadership seeking special favors with warm hugs,” Alford said, arguing the dynamic creates “massive legal and economic uncertainty” and risks derailing the administration’s stated goals of lowering costs for consumers and policing monopoly abuses.
Absent reforms, he said, state attorneys general should consider joining Justice Department cases “as a check on influence peddling.” He also singled out outside figures, alleging “Faustian bargains” by lobbyists seeking “million-dollar success fees.”
Invoking Sir Thomas More, biblical injunctions against bribery, and President Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena,” Alford said he was dismissed from government “for insubordination” after insisting that “lobbyists and lawyers are subordinate to the law.” Returning to academia, he said he would “rather fail while daring greatly than not serve at all.”
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