Comments from state attorneys’ general offices that they will get involved if the US Department of Justice is no longer willing to bring antitrust cases and see them through trial are "funny," the acting chief of the DOJ's Antitrust Division said.
Comments from state attorneys’ general offices that they will get involved if the US Department of Justice is no longer willing to bring antitrust cases and see them through trial are "funny," the acting chief of the DOJ's Antitrust Division said."It's funny to hear this. These remarks of 'well, if the feds don't get involved, we will'," Omeed Assefi, acting assistant attorney general said at a conference* on Thursday. "My reaction is 'great'."
If the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission ever decides to get involved in a case that the DOJ isn't going to bring, Assefi said he would call up the FTC chief and encourage him to commence an investigation or lawsuit so that the DOJ can focus its resources elsewhere.
"I will tell you again, a lot of the commentary betrays a lack of real understanding of what's going on at the Department of Justice for a very long time, especially the Antitrust Division," he said.
Assefi's comments come in the backdrop of the DOJ having suddenly settled its monopolization lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster in a secret deal one week into a six-week long jury trial. The 39 US states and the District of Columbia said they were made aware of the settlement talks rather late into the process. While a handful of states have settled, most are continuing to sue Ticketmaster.
More recently, the DOJ and the Federal Communications Commission approved the Nexstar-Tegna merger. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said the agencies disregarded established standards and its own prior precedents. A coalition of states — including Colorado — challenged the transaction as presumptively illegal. Weiser said that in so doing, the states have demonstrated how attorneys general are "ready and willing" to challenge mergers when the federal government refuses to do so (see here). The Nexstar-Tegna deal "must be stopped," he said.
"What's lost in the sauce on enforcement is [that] the easiest thing to do is just file a complaint. File a complaint, file a press release, congratulate yourself, and not think about the rest. But when you approach the job as an actual litigator and an enforcer, you don't end at the complaint, you focus on going all the way to trial and to settlement, and that's very labor intensive," Assefi said.
It is very pro-enforcement to have the states eager to enforce the law, he said.
"That's great. And I have a great relationship with the state AGs. They can say whatever they want publicly. I'm not going to respond. I don't really care [about] any state AG, even the ones who criticize me or my settlement that I'm very proud of," Assefi said.
On the same day, Colorado's First Assistant Attorney General Bryn Williams said at another conference that the state's relationship with the DOJ "has frayed a little bit" (see here). Separately, Weiser said, "Restoring trust in the federal government, particularly the DOJ, will be difficult. Integrity, once lost, is not easily regained."
If the state AGs call him, Assefi said he will answer because the antitrust enforcement mandate is too important to get into some public back-and-forth. The states can always discuss Live Nation with him, the DOJ official said.
"It's unclear to me how if the federal government has indicated its interest via settlement, and some portion of the states continue to litigate their case, how does everyone but Live Nation, not win in that scenario?" the DOJ enforcer said.
Assefi said his "heart bleeds for the state staff" because they are not being permitted to try the Live Nation lawsuit. The litigation has been contracted out to the law firm Winston & Strawn.
"So, my heart bleeds for their staff, because their staff should have the ability to develop and they're not being given that chance," he said.
*"Antitrust in Action: Enforcement Priorities and the Path Forward," FGS Global and Semafor, Washington, DC and online, March 26, 2026.
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