Published on Apr 20, 2026
Adam Cella, a senior House GOP counsel, and Michael Murray, who served at DOJ during President Donald Trump’s first term, have emerged as early contenders to take over the department’s antitrust division, sources familiar with the matter said. Cella is chief counsel for the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee majority, and Murray is the former principal […]
Adam Cella, a senior House GOP counsel, and Michael Murray, who served at DOJ during President Donald Trump’s first term, have emerged as early contenders to take over the department’s antitrust division, sources familiar with the matter said.
Cella is chief counsel for the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee majority, and Murray is the former principal deputy assistant attorney general for the antitrust division.
DOJ lost its Senate-confirmed antitrust head, Gail Slater, when the White House ousted her in February; Omeed Assefi, the former head of the division’s criminal unit, has been serving in an acting capacity since then.
But Assefi has been considering departing as early as June for private practice, according to a source, and the focus is now turning to who will succeed him. The selection process occurs during an unusually turbulent time at DOJ caused by Slater’s dismissal and the firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi this month. Also, DOJ has come under fire for settling the Live Nation Entertainment (LYV) antitrust suit while the bulk of state attorneys general co-plaintiffs continued at trial and convinced a jury Wednesday to find the company liable on all claims.
In addition, Democratic and Republican state AGs have criticized the department for allowing Nexstar’s (NXST) $6.2 billion acquisition of rival television station operator Tegna to close without challenge. On Friday, a group of state AGs won a preliminary injunction that suspended the integration of Nexstar and Tegna.
The turmoil has affected not only the division but also the senior DOJ official who oversees it. A fight has broken out between administration supporters of Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, the No. 3 at DOJ, and Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights, who’s seeking to replace him, sources have said. Despite Dhillon’s threat to leave if she doesn’t get the job, Woodward is still serving in the role, sources said.
The White House, DOJ, House Judiciary Committee, Cella and Murray didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Murray, Cella views. The top-down management style at DOJ and the White House has ended the semi-autonomy the antitrust division head enjoyed in previous administrations.
Both Murray and Cella likely know what the job entails in this administration. Cella, who began his law career at Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider, served as an attorney adviser to Republican FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson, who resigned during the Biden administration in protest over management disagreements with then-FTC Chair Lina Khan.
Last year at an event sponsored by the conservative Federalist Society, Cella highlighted what he viewed as the European Commission’s efforts to target American companies and harm innovation. The GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee held two hearings on the topic, and in a February 3, 2026 interim staff report said, “The European Commission, in a comprehensive decade-long effort, has successfully pressured social media platforms to change their global content moderation rules, thereby directly infringing on Americans’ online speech in the United States” (emphasis in the original).
At a 2024 Federalist Society event, Cella laid out what he saw as the antitrust enforcement priorities for Trump’s second term. They included cracking down on alleged “coordination or collusion” to limit oil and gas supplies, and advertisers’ “group boycotts” of outlets that promote right-wing figures.
Cella also stressed the need to closely review deals involving companies critical to U.S. supply chains.
“A merger that makes our supply chains fragile might not look like it’s going to do anything to consumers over the next day or two,” he said. “But in a year or two when something bad happens, there can be devastating impacts for consumers.”
Cella in his remarks pressed for DOJ and the FTC to work together on competition cases involving artificial intelligence.
“If we get to a position where AI is developed by one player, the way search is dominated by Google, that is going to be a not optimal outcome for all of us,” he said.
Murray, in a Capitol Forum interview this month, reflected on the character of enforcement in Trump’s second term. Murray focused on the agencies’ willingness to consider consent decrees after the preceding administration’s avoidance of settlements. “We’re seeing early and often engagement on the idea of a remedy, whether that’s a structural remedy, which is preferred, or a behavioral remedy.”
Murray praised Trump administration’s enforcers for exhibiting more “transparency.”
“It’s much easier to get a sense of what they’re concerned about, what they might be focused on and where they’re looking,” he said.
Murray also commented on enforcement trends as a DOJ official at the end of Trump’s first term. In one 2020 address, he noted the increasingly active enforcement of state AGs.
“State and local enforcers are increasingly active,” he said. “Merging parties and conduct case defendants will have to take account of that initiative.”
Since leaving government service, Murray has built up a substantive private practice as co-chair of Paul Hastings’ antitrust and competition practice. His clients included CWT Holdings in its $570 million sale to rival business travel management company Global Business Travel Group, also known as Amex GBT. DOJ sued on January 10, 2025 to block the deal just before Trump came in to office, but the department dropped the case on July 29 and the merger closed in September.
The case’s dismissal raised alarms among some Senate Democrats, who sought information last year about lobbyists the acquirer might have hired to push for DOJ to jettison its challenge.
Murray also represented Fox (FOX) against rival Newsmax (NMAX), and data giant SAP (SAP)against Celonis over monopolization allegations.
Bloomberg first reported that Murray was being considered to lead the antitrust division.
