The Senate on Tuesday approved Gail Slater, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department antitrust division, by a vote of 78-19.
Ms. Slater, a veteran tech and media lawyer, has pledged to be skeptical of corporate power across the economy, and has been particularly critical of power in the tech industry.
At her confirmation hearing, she expressed concern about the dominance of some online platforms, adding it is possible that someone “can be disappeared from the internet quite easily.”
Her confirmation comes as Wall Street and Silicon Valley watch to see if the Trump administration continues the aggressive scrutiny of corporate America pursued under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Ms. Slater inherits two Justice Department antitrust lawsuits against Google. The first, which was filed in 2020 under the first Trump administration, is a landmark case in which a judge ruled last year that Google was a monopolist in search. A judge is still considering the second case, in which the government has claimed Google’s control of ad technology is anticompetitive.
On Friday, the Justice Department continued its aggressive approach to the Google search case, reiterating its Biden-era demand that the court force the company to sell its popular Chrome browser. The judge in that case is scheduled in April to hear arguments from both sides on how to fix the problem.
The Justice Department also filed a lawsuit last year against Apple over claims that its tightly knit system of devices and software makes it challenging for consumers to leave.
Ms. Slater is a longtime Washington lawyer who previously worked for the Internet Association, a shuttered group that represented big tech companies like Google and Meta, as well as Roku and Fox Corp. She also worked as an adviser to Vice President JD Vance when he was serving in the Senate, and served in the National Economic Council during Mr. Trump’s first term.
