Published on May 08, 2026
Adam Candeub, the Federal Communications Commission’s general counsel, has emerged as a leading candidate to be nominated to lead DOJ’s antitrust division, sources familiar with the matter said. Candeub as well as Adam Cella, a senior House GOP counsel, and Michael Murray, a former DOJ official in Trump’s first administration, were interviewed recently at the […]
Adam Candeub, the Federal Communications Commission’s general counsel, has emerged as a leading candidate to be nominated to lead DOJ’s antitrust division, sources familiar with the matter said.
Candeub as well as Adam Cella, a senior House GOP counsel, and Michael Murray, a former DOJ official in Trump’s first administration, were interviewed recently at the White House for the position, the sources said.
DOJ lost its Senate-confirmed antitrust head, Gail Slater, when the White House ousted her in February. Current acting antitrust chief Omeed Assefi is set to go on paternity leave in June, and isn’t expected to return, one of the sources said.
Assefi’s resume is currently circulating among many top Big Law firms in Washington, several sources said.
Candeub, who served as acting head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) during Trump’s first term, pushed to overhaul Section 230, which shields online platforms from liability for content posted by third parties. He also served as a DOJ deputy associate attorney general.
As FCC general counsel—a role he took in February 2025—Candeub has a limited track record, as the agency hasn’t yet resolved any major court challenges during his tenure.
Candeub, who became a professor at Michigan State Law School in 2004 and rejoined the university after Trump’s 2020 election defeat, also contributed to the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” report, authoring the section on the Federal Trade Commission.
“I wrote the FTC section, and I’m somewhat populist,” he told Politico in 2024. “I believe in the consumer welfare standard. But I also like to point out that the courts’ obsession with focusing on price to the exclusion of other factors like privacy or other non-monetary values has been very limiting and bad for antitrust. I thought the FTC should take a very pro-children, ‘protecting kids against Big Tech’ role,” he said.
Candeub’s anti-Big Tech positioning is seen as aligning with some elements of the MAGA movement.
At the same time, his professional background—which has focused largely on telecommunications and lacks direct antitrust enforcement experience—would make him an atypical choice to lead the antitrust division.
Meanwhile, DOJ’s No. 3 official, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, is still in his job more than a month after several reports indicated that current civil rights division head Harmeet Dhillon was set to replace him.
“I think Stanley is staying for the long run,” one of the sources said.
Woodward actively oversees the antitrust division, and sources said the more top-down management style at DOJ and the White House has ended the semi-autonomy that antitrust division leadership has typically enjoyed.
Candeub, Cella and Murray didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. A White House official said they have no personnel announcements at this time.
