Trump nominates Bush-era official for DOJ antitrust chief

President Trump will nominate a former antitrust official from the George W. Bush administration to lead the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, the White House announced late Monday.

Makan Delrahim, currently the deputy White House counsel, served on the antitrust team as a deputy assistant attorney general from 2003 to 2005.

The Wall Street Journal first reported last week that Trump was likely to tap Delrahim.

{mosads}If confirmed, Delrahim will be tasked with reviewing pending mergers like the proposed AT&T–Time Warner deal. 

Trump came out publicly against the $85 million merger as a candidate in October but has since indicated he is softening his stance.

Delrahim has said that the deal appears above board, according to Recode.

“The sheer size of it, and the fact that it’s media, I think will get a lot of attention,” he said in an interview with Canadian television station BNN in October. “However, I don’t see this as a major antitrust problem.”