President Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division drew opposition Wednesday from an antimonopoly group that portrayed his Federal Communications Commission record as deferential to industry consolidation, raising questions about whether he would aggressively challenge corporate mergers and monopolization after months of instability at the division.
Adam Candeub, the FCC’s general counsel, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee after Trump nominated him on Jul 21st to serve as assistant attorney general for antitrust. The division has lacked a Senate-confirmed leader since Gail Slater left on Feb 12th.
“At the FCC, he served as General Counsel while the agency rubber-stamped every major broadcast, cable, and wireless consolidation that came before it,” Phillip Berenbroick of the American Economic Liberties Project said in a statement opposing the nomination.
Local sponsorAffordable photography lessons in Newport, Jamestown, or your town.E.L. Photo RICandeub’s background centers on telecommunications law and regulation rather than antitrust enforcement. He graduated from Yale University and the University of Chicago Law School, clerked on the Ninth Circuit, practiced at two law firms and worked at the FCC before spending two decades teaching antitrust and criminal law at Michigan State University’s law school.
More than a dozen current and former Justice Department officials signed a letter supporting his nomination, pointing to his work at the FCC, the Office of the Associate Attorney General and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, where he served as acting administrator.
Candeub has said he believes in the consumer welfare standard, the prevailing antitrust framework focused on effects including prices, output and innovation. His chapter in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, however, called for the Federal Trade Commission to consider corporate effects on democratic institutions, the “marketplace of ideas” and children’s online safety — factors extending beyond conventional price analysis.
He has also pressed for tighter limits on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects online platforms from liability for user content and allows them to moderate material. His record has focused heavily on claims that large technology companies restrict political speech.
If confirmed, Candeub would inherit Justice Department lawsuits involving Google’s dominance in online search and Apple’s control over its App Store. He would also direct federal merger reviews, monopolization cases and criminal antitrust enforcement.
The Google litigation presents an immediate test. The Justice Department filed a cross-appeal in February seeking stronger remedies, including forced divestitures, after U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected a proposed sale of the Chrome browser while restricting Google’s exclusive contracts and requiring the company to share certain search data with competitors.
It is unclear whether Candeub would continue seeking Chrome’s divestiture. Slater’s departure followed tensions with Attorney General Pam Bondi over how aggressively the department should pursue antitrust matters, first reported by The Washington Post.
Rhode Island has relied on federal-state cooperation in a major merger challenge. In February 2022, the state attorney general denied the proposed merger of Lifespan and Care New England and joined an FTC lawsuit seeking to block it.
The FTC alleged that combining the two health systems would reduce competition for inpatient general acute-care and behavioral-health services in Rhode Island and 19 nearby Massachusetts communities. Candeub would not control the FTC, but the Justice Department’s enforcement posture can influence how federal officials approach consolidation affecting prices, workers and smaller competitors.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has not scheduled a vote on Candeub’s nomination.