Lina Khan's replacement at FTC to be vetted by an aide to Vance

An Oxford-educated antitrust lawyer who advised the first Trump White House on technology policy is helping the president-elect pick Lina Khan’s replacement.

Gail Slater, who is an aide to Vice President-elect JD Vance, is advising Trump’s transition team on antitrust policy, including crafting a shortlist of candidates to serve as Federal Trade Commission chair, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Slater, 52, is also being considered for a top antitrust job.

Slater has a critical opportunity to shape competition policy following a watershed change in enforcement activity by the Biden administration, which set new records for merger enforcement and monopolization cases. She’s also being tapped to advise the administration more broadly on tech and economic policy, which was reported earlier by Politico.

Biden’s FTC Chair Lina Khan, whose aggressive antitrust agenda made her a nemesis of big business, became a flashpoint during the election when a handful of billionaires called for her ouster. Khan is expected to leave in January.

Slater and Khan declined to comment. Trump’s transition team didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Republican lawyers Mark Paoletta and Will Levi, an ex-staffer to former Attorney General Bill Barr and Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, are heading up the Justice Department-wide transition work, including for the antitrust division, which also enforces competition policy, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations.

The list of candidates that Slater is assembling for top antitrust positions, such as FTC chair, includes former Justice Department attorney Mark Meador. Also under consideration are George Mason University Antonin Scalia School of Law professor Todd Zywicki and Alex Okuliar, a partner at Morrison Foerster who helped lead the government’s antitrust investigation into Google under the first Trump administration, said some of the people.

The FTC’s two Republican commissioners — Melissa Holyoak and Andrew Ferguson — are also on the list and one of them could be named interim chair, the people said.

Holyoak and Meador declined to comment. Ferguson, Zywicki and Okuliar didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In the run-up to Trump’s inauguration, different factions in the Republican Party are jockeying for control of competition policy and enforcement. That tension is on display as establishment groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce clash with more pro-enforcement Republicans led by Vance. The Ohio senator has praised Khan for her aggressive stance on Big Tech. Slater has connections to both wings of the Republican Party.

The stakes are high, with several pending deals — including Capital One Financial Corp.’s proposed acquisition of Discover Financial Services and Synopsys Inc.’s bid to buy Ansys Inc. — undergoing in-depth antitrust reviews. Dealmakers are also kicking the tires on other potential acquisitions, including a Qualcomm Inc. and Intel Corp. tie-up.

Trump’s election bodes well for companies like LIV Golf, whose proposed deal with rival PGA Tour hit a roadblock with Biden’s antitrust enforcers. Trump has spoken favorably of a deal between PGA and LIV, saying in a recent podcast that he believes there should be “one tour” and he could help strike a deal quickly.

Slater, an Ireland native, holds degrees from the University College Dublin and Oxford University. She spent 10 years at the FTC, including as an adviser to former Democratic FTC Commissioner Julie Brill under the Obama administration.

Following her FTC stint, Slater joined the Internet Association, a now defunct trade group for internet companies whose members included Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. She moved to the White House during the first Trump administration as a special assistant to the president for economic policy with a broad portfolio that included technology, telecom and cyber issues.

Slater was later hired by Fox Corp. and Roku Inc. Earlier this year, she moved onto Vance’s staff, advising on antitrust and economic policy.

Several blockbuster cases are hanging in the balance. Trump’s antitrust enforcers started ongoing monopoly cases against technology platforms Google and Meta Platforms Inc. More recently Biden-appointed officials brought major actions against Live Nation Entertainment Inc.’s Ticketmaster, Visa Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc.

Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, Biden’s regulators may seek to finalize some rulemakings such as the FTC’s proposed rule to ban “junk fees,” while sweeping privacy regulation are unlikely to be completed.

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(With assistance from Stephanie Lai, Chris Strohm and Zoe Tillman.)