President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is moving to scuttle lawsuits and investigations for a string of proposed corporate mergers, which experts fear could raise prices for consumers for years to come, according to three people briefed on the plans.  

Trump administration appointees have overruled moves by career attorneys who had proposed suits or launched reviews to assess how the company mergers and acquisitions might lead to unfair price gouging for both consumers and taxpayers, according to the three people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal DOJ processes.   

The veteran DOJ staff attorneys in the antitrust division were considering suing one aerospace parts company and requiring other firms proposing mergers to make standard moves to protect consumers — including selling parts of their businesses, the people said. 

The division’s goal, part of its mission since it was formed in the Great Depression, has been to reduce companies’ monopoly hold on their industry sectors before allowing them to finalize their deals.

But Trump Justice officials are instead pushing to give the government’s stamp of approval for the mergers without those full reviews and without any legal action. Three sources told MS NOW that DOJ staff have privately complained that the Trump administration is essentially deciding not to enforce antitrust laws that are critical to keeping companies from becoming single-source providers and being able to charge enormous sums for their product or service. 

Antitrust experts told MS NOW that they predict the Trump administration’s abdication of consumer laws in these cases will likely lead to even higher prices for gas and for airline travel to Mexico, as well as exorbitant prices for federal military contracts for aerospace components.  

“It’s unilateral surrender on antitrust enforcement; it’s absolutely unprecedented,” said Bill Baer, the former assistant attorney general for the antitrust division in the Obama administration. “It’s definitely going to hurt consumers. It means prices will go up, concentration is going to increase — and quality often diminishes when you have only a few firms operating in the same market.”

The two mergers that DOJ leaders are ramming through include two low-cost Mexican air carriers, Viva Aerobus and Volaris, who announced their plans to merge last year, and the proposed merger of the Italian firm Saipem and U.K. firm Subsea7, who together control a sizable portion of sales for equipment used for subsea oil operations. Major oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Petrobras and TotalEnergies, have filed formal objections with federal regulators about the latter merger, arguing to antitrust regulators that the combined firms will create a subsea monopoly that will increase costs, delay critical projects and force clients into expensive, long-term contracts. 

In a third case, Trump appointees at the DOJ have also blocked the antitrust division from plans to sue to prevent another corporate transaction, aerospace giant TransDigm, which is seeking to acquire another competitor. Lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked the DOJ to investigate the acquisition due to concerns that TransDigm has a pattern of buying other companies to limit competition and gouge the Defense Department in contracts for specialized military aircraft parts. 

Elements of the proposed suit and the move to scuttle antitrust investigations was first reported by Bloomberg.

The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.

Two people familiar with the matter said the main driver of this new push not to enforce antitrust laws and protections is Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward. A third person pushed back on that, saying many of the decisions are being driven by Charlie Beller, the deputy assistant attorney general for civil mergers in the DOJ’s antitrust division. That person also stressed that no final decision had been made on the Transdigm deal or other mergers at issue.

Woodward, an ardent Trump ally, represented a Trump valet who refused to cooperate in an investigation of Trump’s mishandling of classified records after he lost re-election and left office in 2021. Now seated inside the DOJ, Woodward has repeatedly told subordinates that he doesn’t want the antitrust division to sue any corporations over their proposed mergers and wants career attorneys to settle all active merger cases to let the deals go forward, two of the people told MSNOW. 

More broadly and far beyond the antitrust division’s review of mergers, Woodward has raised concerns about most investigations of corporations, even where there is evidence that they engaged in criminal violations of environmental and public corruption laws, the people said.

Lawyers in the division have privately complained internally that Woodward, who has no prior experience enforcing antitrust laws, is in effect declaring open season for companies to flout antitrust laws without fear of enforcement. 

“He’s taking litigation off the table, and you don’t get a settlement absent a litigation threat,” said one person with knowledge of Woodward’s pressure on the office. “I can’t think of an administration in history that would want to run anti-trust policy like this.”

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“Consumers are getting really screwed by all of this,” the person continued. “We’re talking 10 years of consumer harm that can’t be undone.”

Baer called the new DOJ push to settle and simply rubber stamp mergers “an abdication” of the department’s duty to shield consumers from avaricious companies seizing a monopoly.

“What Woodward seems to be doing is saying let’s not investigate or let’s settle cheaply because we want M&A (merger and acquisitions) activity to go through regardless of the anti-consumer and anti-competitive consequences,” Baer said. “There is consensus that certain mergers pose unacceptable risks to consumers, and Woodward seems to be blowing up that consensus. The signal that is sent to the business community … people will now try to do what was considered impossible.”

Charlie Beller, who works as the deputy assistant attorney general for civil mergers, told line prosecutors last month that the “fifth floor” — the floor of the DOJ where acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and top political leaders are based — does not want any civil antitrust enforcement at all, according to one person with knowledge of Beller’s warning.  

According to the source, Beller added that the antitrust lawyers will no longer be allowed to formally demand that corporations turn over in-depth internal records when they are reviewing a merger or acquisition. That step, known as a “second request,” legally blocks companies from combining until they have substantially complied with DOJ requests and the agency has completed its competitive harm analysis.

Criminal prosecutors were left shocked and confused last year when Woodward said he had doubts about the government’s ability to investigate and prosecute corporate crime in several areas beyond antitrust — and remarked that there was no prison large enough to imprison a corporation, according to two other people with knowledge of his comments. 

Some attorneys who heard Woodward’s remarks were flummoxed. DOJ has charged corporations and corporate officers with federal crimes in thousands of cases, often leading to prison time for officers and fines and legally required remedies for the corporations. 

One of the people told MS NOW that Woodward is “allergic” to DOJ litigation against corporations because the ultimate settlements with the company are made public and can be reviewed by a judge to determine if they serve the public interest. 

For example, when Hewlett Packard and the DOJ settled an antitrust lawsuit last year over the company’s $14 billion bid to purchase its main rival, Juniper, the public agreement provided a window into a concerning trend of Trump allies and MAGA influencers profiting off their access to the president and his team. The Hewlett Packard settlement required that the company divest from one of its businesses and that the merged firm license key Juniper software to independent competitors.

A deposition in the case revealed that a top Trump ally, Mike Davis, had worked as a paid lobbyist for Hewlett Packard and angrily threatened a top antitrust official that he would “destroy her” and she could lose her job if she didn’t settle the case.

According to one person familiar with the talks, former Attorney General Bill Barr met last week with DOJ leaders on behalf of the Mexican airline merger. Barr has not responded to a request for comment by MS NOW.

Carol Leonnig

Carol Leonnig is a senior investigative reporter with MS NOW.

Ken Dilanian

Ken Dilanian is the justice and intelligence correspondent for MS NOW.