Warren blocking Trump’s pick for antitrust chief: report

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is blocking the Senate confirmation of President Trump’s nominee to run the Justice Department’s antitrust division, according to Bloomberg.

Makan Delrahim was nominated for the post in March and approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 19-1 vote in June, but Warren has placed a hold on the nomination that could delay a final vote until September at the earliest, according to the report.

The antitrust division has been tasked with reviewing the $85 billion merger between AT&T and Time Warner, which has invited criticism from many Democrats and even Trump, who railed against the deal on the campaign trail.

{mosads}Warren has pointed to Delrahim’s nomination as an example of the Trump administration’s willingness to put the “interests of giant corporations ahead of the American people,” as she wrote in an April 3 Facebook post, citing his work lobbying for Anthem in its attempted merger with Cigna.

Her office did not respond to requests for comment.

Warren was also among a group of Senate Democrats asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to closely scrutinize the AT&T-Time Warner deal, arguing that it has the potential to hurt consumers and competitors.

“Before initiating the next big wave of media consolidation, you must consider how the $85 billion deal will impact Americans’ wallets, as well as their access to a wide-range of news and entertainment programming,” the senators wrote in a letter to Sessions.

“Should you determine that the substantial harms to competition and consumers arising from the transaction outweigh the purported benefits, you should reject the proposed acquisition.”