DOJ's No. 3 Official Wants Antitrust Enforcers to Settle — Not Fight — in Court

Stanley Woodward, the Justice Department's third-ranking official and direct overseer of antitrust enforcement, has told staff he wants antitrust cases resolved through settlements rather than trials. Lawyers in the department's Chicago office and other locations heard him describe drawn-out litigation as manpower-intensive and inefficient. Some staffers interpreted the comments not as a preference but as a directive to wind down existing litigation and avoid future cases — a reading the DOJ officially disputes, with a spokeswoman saying Woodward simply reminded staff that settlements deliver results faster.

The practical consequences of Woodward's posture could be significant. The department is currently in active federal court battles against Apple and Visa on monopolization charges, and both cases could be affected by pressure to settle. On mergers, the Trump DOJ has already been strikingly permissive: its prior top antitrust enforcer, Omeed Assefi, boasted in a May 2026 speech that the division approved 99.5% of all mergers submitted for antitrust review in fiscal year 2025 — a stark contrast to the Biden era's more combative stance.

Woodward's background raises its own red flags for career antitrust attorneys. Before joining the department, he defended individuals charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol attack. Internally, he has described himself as a defense lawyer skeptical of antitrust law and the government's enforcement role broadly. Unusually for someone of his seniority, he has involved himself in the granular details of antitrust investigations — a sign of how deeply he is reshaping the division's culture.

The institutional turbulence surrounding antitrust at DOJ has been substantial. Trump's original antitrust chief, Gail Slater, was fired in February after reportedly being pressured to approve a deal. Her deputy, Roger Alford, later gave a pointed speech warning that companies were hiring influence peddlers to burnish their political credentials and game enforcement decisions — calling it a "pay-to-play approach" with enormous costs to the country. Earlier this month, senior DOJ leadership shut down an investigation into Paramount's bid for Warner Bros. Discovery before career staffers could formally object. The department's one merger lawsuit since Trump's return — against Hewlett Packard Enterprise — is already being steered toward settlement, though Trump-aligned lawyers' involvement in the deal has drawn objections from state attorneys general.