JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust efforts is facing an extended limbo in the Senate, prolonging uncertainty for potential mergers, including AT&T Inc.’s bid to acquire Time Warner Inc.
The delay in Makan Delrahim’s nomination is due in part to objections raised by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), a leading figure in the Democrats’ liberal wing who has been a vocal critic of large corporate mergers that she says could hurt consumers, according to people familiar with the matter…
The president nominated Mr. Delrahim, a deputy White House counsel and former Justice Department antitrust lawyer, for the post in April. Mr. Delrahim won early bipartisan support, and in June the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 19-1 to send his nomination to the full Senate.
But more than three months later, the lights remain off in the third-floor Justice Department office reserved for the antitrust chief. Political deputies selected by Mr. Delrahim, along with career staff, are conducting the department’s business without him, including the government’s high-stakes review of the AT&T-Time Warner deal…
Sen. Warren’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment.”
-Brent Kendall, “Trump’s Antitrust Chief Nomination Is Held Up in Senate,” The Wall Street Journal online, Sept. 21, 2017 09:48am