Roger
Alford
is
a
law
professor
at
Notre
Dame,
and
a
veteran
of
the
Trump
I
administration
where
he
was
the
Department
of
Justice’s
top
antitrust
official
for
international
affairs.
In
the
Tump
II
reign,
he
took
up
the
role
of
principal
deputy
assistant
attorney
general
in
the
DOJ’s
antitrust
division.
But
he’s
been
forced
out
of
that
role,
and
based
on
recent
comments,
his
position
against
the
merger
between
competitors
Hewlett
Packard
Enterprise (HPE)
and
Juniper
Networks
is
at
the
root
of
his
ouster.
Initially
the
DOJ
sued
to
block
the
merger,
but
HPE
hired
MAGA
influencers
Mike
Davis
and
Arthur
Schwartz.
Since
that
fortuitous
hiring, HPE
reached
a
settlement
with
the
government
to
move
the
merger
forward,
And
Alford
is
not
happy
about
it.
In
a
speech
at
the
Technology
Policy
Institute
in
Aspen,
Colorado,
Alford
called
on
the
courts
to
undo
the
damage
the
alleged
corruption
hath
wrought,
saying,
“I
hope
the
[federal
court
overseeing
the
Justice
Department’s
proposed
resolution]
blocks
the
HPE/Juniper
merger,”
and
urging
them
to
“examine
the
surprising
truth
of
what
happened.”Alford
assured
the
audience,
“If
you
knew
what
I
knew,
you
would
hope
so
too.”
As
reported
by
the
Wall
Street
Journal,
Alford
places
a
lot
of
the
blame
on
two
of
Attorney
General
Pam
Bondi’s
lackeys
—
Chad
Mizelle,
spouse
to…
questionable
federal
judge
Kathryn
Mizelle,
and
Stanley
Woodward.
Alford
said
Bondi’s
chief
of
staff,
Chad
Mizelle,
is
prone
to
favoring
outside
lawyers
and
lobbyists
with
whom
he
is
friends.
Mizelle
and
another
top
aide
to
Bondi,
Stanley
Woodward,
played
significant
roles
in
how
the
department
settled
with
HPE
and
Juniper
in
June,
Alford
said.
Trump
has
nominated
Woodward
to
be
the
Justice
Department’s
third-ranking
official.“Chad
Mizelle
accepts
party
meetings
and
makes
key
decisions
depending
on
whether
the
request
or
information
comes
from
a
MAGA
friend,”
Alford
said.
“Aware
of
this
injustice,
companies
are
hiring
lawyers
and
influence
peddlers
to
bolster
their
MAGA
credentials
and
pervert
traditional
law
enforcement.”
Alford
continued,
“Although
I
am
limited
in
what
I
can
say,
it
is
my
opinion
that
in
the
HPE/Juniper
merger
scandal
Chad
Mizelle
and
Stanley
Woodward
perverted
justice
and
acted
inconsistent
with
the
rule
of
law.”
“I
am
not
given
to
hyperbole,
and
I
do
not
say
that
lightly.”
Alford’s
description
of
life
in
the
antitrust
division
reads
downright
dystopian,
with
MAGA
influence
the
new
currency
of
the
day:
Is
this
the
new
normal,
with
every
law
firm
hiring
an
influence
peddler
to
dual
track
and
sidestep
the
litigation
and
merger
review
process?
That’s
what
law
firms
are
now
considering.
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.
On
numerous
occasions
in
a
variety
of
matters
we
implored
our
superiors
and
the
lawyers
on
the
other
side
to
call
off
the
jackals.
But
to
no
avail.
Today
cases
are
being
resolved
based
on
political
connections,
not
the
legal
merits.
But
his
fire
comments
(you
can
read
them
in
full
here)
didn’t
just
focus
on
the
DOJ
employees
Alford
believes
betrayed
their
principles.
He
also
had
choice
words
for
the
lobbyists.
Mike
Davis
and
Arthur
Schwartz
have
made
a
Faustian
bargain
of
trading
on
relationships
with
powerful
people
to
reportedly
earn
million-dollar
success
fees
by
helping
corporations
undermine
Trump’s
antitrust
agenda,
hurt
working
class
Americans,
break
the
rules,
and
then
try
to
cover
it
up.
Outside
the
small
circle
of
transactional
MAGA
friends
seeking
and
giving
favors,
do
these
lobbyists
and
their
friends
in
power
actually
know
what
traditional
or
populist
conservatives
think
about
them?
When
lobbyists
like
Mike
Davis
and
Will
Levi
go
to
their
Supreme
Court
clerkship
reunions,
how
do
honorable
conservative
lawyers
who
clerked
for
the
great
Justices
Alito
and
Gorsuch
view
their
shenanigans?
Do
the
executives
and
the
lawyers
who
hire
these
lobbyists
know
what
the
antitrust
bar
and
the
Division’s
leaders
and
lawyers
think
of
their
behavior?
They
have
long
memories.
And
Alford
makes
it
clear
that
he
believes
his
stance
against
corruption
is
behind
his
firing.
My
position
while
I
served
in
government
was
simple:
lobbyists
and
lawyers
are
subordinate
to
the
law.
Yet
by
stating
this
truth,
I
was
dismissed
for
insubordination.
My
termination
letter
is
now
framed
and
hangs
on
the
wall
in
my
office
at
Notre
Dame.
I
joke
with
friends
that
I’ve
never
been
fired
before,
and
I’ve
been
working
since
my
first
job
as
a
young
teenager
at
the
Dairy
Queen
in
Sherman,
Texas.
All
it
took
to
be
fired
were
lobbyists
exerting
influence
on
my
superiors
to
retaliate
against
me
for
protecting
the
rule
of
law
against
the
rule
of
lobbyists.
But
a
DOJ
spokesperson,
when
asked
for
comment,
had
a
very
different
take,
“Roger
Alford
is
the
James
Comey
of
antitrust—pursuing
blind
self-promotion
and
ego,
while
ignoring
reality.”
And
HPE
provided
the
following
statement,
“Any
suggestion
that
HPE
procured
the
settlement
through
unethical
or
improper
means
is
false
and
irresponsible.”
Alford
supposes
that
he’ll
be
written
off
as
“naïve,”
and
there’s
a
ring
of
truth
there.
I
mean,
he
*was*
working
for
the
Trump
administration.
That’s
the
guy
who
bullied
nine
major
law
firms
into
giving
him
almost
a
billion
dollars
in
free
legal
services
to
get
out
from
under
unconstitutional
executive
orders.
The
same
one
who
finagled
$20
million
in
free
air
time
from
CBS
because
he
didn’t
like
60
Minutes’
journalism.
Who
got
himself
a
“free”
plane
from
Qatar.
Pay-to-play
is
the
name
of
the
game
in
2025,
and
the
antitrust
division
is
only
taking
their
lead
from
the
top.
Kathryn
Rubino
is
a
Senior
Editor
at
Above
the
Law,
host
of
The
Jabot
podcast,
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
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tipsters
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so
please
connect
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Feel
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