Matt Gaetz could launch Big Tech crackdown at DOJ
President-elect Trump’s decision to nominate former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as attorney general signals a rough road ahead for major technology firms during his second administration.
Gaetz had been a fierce critic of Big Tech throughout his time in Congress, teaming up with Democrats and praising Biden administration efforts to rein in the power of the industry
While Gaetz faces serious doubts about his ability to be confirmed, experts say his stint atop the Justice Department would bring another four years of heavy scrutiny on the tech giants.
“If I were Big Tech, I would be very concerned about his track record on antitrust enforcement and his general view against Big Tech and big business,” said Kellie Lerner, managing partner at antitrust law firm Shinder Cantor Lerner.
“He kind of takes the Republican stance against big government and morphs that into an overall distaste for big business, with a particular focus on Big Tech,” she noted.
Trump announced his pick to lead the Justice Department on Wednesday — a decision that was met with surprise on Capitol Hill.
Gaetz was previously investigated by the Justice Department as part of a sex trafficking probe and was facing a House Ethics Committee investigation over alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
The Florida Republican resigned just hours after receiving the attorney general nod, halting the committee's investigation in its tracks. It was initially scheduled to vote Friday on whether to release a report about Gaetz, but later canceled that meeting.
Gaetz’s nomination has also sparked concerns about Trump’s plans for the Justice Department, which is viewed as a prime vehicle for the president-elect to enact his promised retribution on his enemies.
While Gaetz may represent a sharp departure from the typical attorney general, his views on Big Tech power see him surprisingly aligned with progressives and President Biden's administration.
As head of the Justice Department, Gaetz would oversee half of the Trump administration’s antitrust enforcement, which is split between the agency’s antitrust division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
FTC Chair Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general for antitrust, have led the Biden administration’s aggressive antitrust push against companies such as Amazon, Apple and Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
The effort has made the pair, particularly Khan, unpopular among the business community.
However, they have also drawn support from unusual circles, including so-called “Khanservatives” — Republicans like Gaetz who have voiced approved for Khan and Kanter’s forceful approach to antitrust enforcement.
“Mr. Assistant Attorney General, I think you’re doing a good job, and that is a painful admission for me to have to make about anyone who works for the Department of Justice, an entity that I believe has been victimized by political capture,” Gaetz told Kanter at a House Judiciary Committee hearing last year.
“But I am perhaps just as concerned about the monopoly power of Google,” he added at the time.
Kanter has overseen the Justice Department’s pair of cases against Google, one filed in 2020 under the first Trump administration and another filed in 2023 under the Biden administration.
The agency secured a significant victory in August, when a federal judge ruled that Google has maintained an illegal monopoly over online search.
As the case has shifted into the remedy phase, the Justice Department revealed that it is considering asking the court to break off Google’s search business from other parts of the company — an effort Gaetz has previously supported.
“Some say *sue* Big Tech. I say BREAK UP Big Tech!” Gaetz wrote on social media in July 2021.
Gaetz’s comment came amid a House effort to pass legislation overhauling antitrust laws to make it easier to break up big companies and make consolidation more difficult.
The Florida Republican was a key supporter of the push, alongside then-Reps. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.).
He has also offered praise for Khan, telling The Wall Street Journal earlier this year that he hopes “whoever is the next FTC chair would continue many of the cases that Chair Khan has brought against predatory businesses.”
Under Khan, the FTC sued Amazon for allegedly engaging in anticompetitive practices to maintain its monopoly over the online retail space. The agency has also sued to block acquisitions by numerous companies, including tech giants such as Meta and Microsoft.
“[Gaetz] has been very supportive of the uptick in antitrust enforcement over the Biden administration,” Lerner noted. “He's been very complimentary of Jonathan Kanter and Lina Khan, and his comments reflect a true antipathy towards Big Tech.”
“If confirmed, I think there could be a reckoning in the [tech] industry,” she added.
His support for efforts to rein in corporate power extends beyond antitrust and Big Tech. In June, Gaetz filed an amicus brief in support of the FTC’s ban on noncompete agreements, a move that was opposed by many in his own party.
He has also previously broken with his fellow Republicans on corporate issues, such as forced arbitration and stock buybacks.
“As a member of Congress, he was very populist on economics,” said Matt Stoller, director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit that supports aggressive antitrust enforcement.
“He was very aggressive on antitrust, on corporate power, not just a Big Tech," he continued. “He's a populist ... and not a fake one."
However, it remains to be seen how Gaetz will approach antitrust if confirmed as attorney general.
“If history is prologue, there will likely be some inconsistencies between how the appointee and the Cabinet want to operate and ultimately what Trump decides to support,” Lerner said.
“There is a tension, right,” she added. “Because you have Gaetz really opposed to big business, but you saw the stock market reaction after Trump was elected, and that is because of his overall support for big business.”
Markets soared following Trump’s win in anticipation of a more business-friendly environment under the president-elect, who has promised to cut through regulations and lower taxes.
“Trump's problem and opportunity is that he has this big voting base now of working-class Americans, and he has to deliver for them,” Stoller said.
“I think his goal is to deliver for them but also deliver for Wall Street,” he added. “Can you do that, or do you have to pick? I think he doesn't want to pick, but he'll be forced to pick, and then that's when we're going to get down to brass tacks.”
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