A former Trump Justice Department official on Monday criticized what he called the administration’s “shocking” settlement with Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster, telling lawmakers that the department abused its prosecutorial discretion to reach the deal. Roger Alford, a former principal deputy assistant attorney general in the department’s Antitrust Division, appeared before a Democrat-led congressional forum on Capitol Hill and said he was speaking on behalf of traditional Republicans who care about the strong enforcement of antitrust laws. The Justice Department in March revealed a $280 million settlement in the case, a deal that fell short of requiring the breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the department’s initial goal. “Part of the reason that the settlement in this case was so unsettling is it undermined traditional norms in a case that is of great significance to the American public,” Alford told lawmakers. “One would hope that institutional and personal integrity would have protected against such prosecutorial abuse, but unfortunately that has not happened.” Trump, along with White House and Cabinet officials, now feel no hesitation to intervene in the fine details and influence the decisions of prosecutors when it comes to antitrust investigations and settlements, Alford said. “The practice invites political allies to lobby their friends in high office for specific results,” he said. “The rule of law quickly becomes the rule of lobbyists, and the great danger of law enforcement becoming personal is realized for the benefit of some and to the detriment of others.” The settlement has drawn criticism on Capitol Hill from Democrats like Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who has argued the deal stops short of opening the industry to new competition and innovation. At one point during the forum on Monday, Klobuchar asked Alford about the future effects of career DOJ employees leaving the department. “What has happened in the past few months is we've lost some [of the] absolute best economists and lawyers at the Antitrust Division,” Alford said. “They're irreplaceable, truly,” he added. “And so it will take years and years to try to recover and build back up the strength that we had at the start of the Trump administration.” The Justice Department and a coalition of states filed a lawsuit to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2024, accusing the ownership company of maintaining an illegal monopoly over major concert venues. The complaint, brought under the Biden administration, accused Live Nation of overloading fans with higher fees and causing artists to have fewer opportunities to play concerts. Days after the antitrust trial began in March, the Justice Department announced a $280 million settlement with the company, one that would also require the entertainment giant to divest about a dozen concert venues. The agreement fell far short of the Justice Department's goal to require Live Nation to divest Ticketmaster. A coalition of states involved in the lawsuit did not endorse the department settlement, and a federal jury last month found that Live Nation and Ticketmaster operated as a monopoly in parts of the live events industry, saying the entities violated federal and state-level laws. People in more than 20 states were overcharged by $1.72 per ticket because of anticompetitive behavior from Ticketmaster, the jury found. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said the $280 million settlement figure represented a “trivial and pathetic slap on the wrist,” a number that only amounted to several days of the company’s revenues in 2025. “The settlement did nothing at all for consumers, artists, industry workers or venues,” Raskin said.
