Justice Department puts Stanley Woodward in charge of antitrust division

The Justice Department has moved Stanley Woodward, its third-ranking official, into charge of the Antitrust Division, a shift that puts merger reviews, Big Tech scrutiny and corporate regulation closer to the department’s top leadership. Omeed Assefi, who had been serving as acting head, is expected to leave, and Attorney General Todd Blanche signed off on a memo last week allowing Woodward to exercise the authority of the assistant attorney general for antitrust.

The change matters because the Antitrust Division is the federal government’s core competition enforcer. DOJ says the division exists to promote economic competition through antitrust law and to protect economic freedom and opportunity, a mission that gives the office outsized influence over corporate deals, market structure and conduct cases that can affect consumers, workers and taxpayers. Woodward already oversees DOJ civil matters and components including antitrust in his role as associate attorney general, so the new assignment consolidates that power rather than creating a fresh layer of review.

The handoff also marks another turn in a division that has already seen rapid leadership changes. Gail Slater was confirmed as assistant attorney general on March 12, 2025, and on April 28, 2025, she delivered her first formal antitrust address at Notre Dame, describing her approach as a conservative case for vigorous enforcement. Her tenure, along with Assefi’s turn as acting chief, has coincided with a series of active merger and conduct actions, including the June 12, 2026 closure of the eight-month Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery investigation after more than two million documents from over 80 custodians, the June 2 requirement that Taiheiyo Cement and CalPortland divest three ready-mix concrete plants tied to a $712 million acquisition, and the May 20 settlement with Bayer over potentially anticompetitive seed-tying and loyalty-program provisions.

Woodward’s elevation also lands against a still-active criminal agenda. DOJ says the division’s criminal program targets collusion, monopolization and other antitrust crimes, and in May 2026 it announced charges against seven Chinese executives and four shipping container manufacturers in an alleged pandemic-era price-fixing scheme. Blanche’s April 7, 2025 memorandum on “Ending Regulation By Prosecution” shows how the department has been framing enforcement discretion more broadly, which makes this internal reassignment a signal about how aggressively, and from how high up, the government will police competition in the months ahead.