President Trump plans to nominate a tech critic and telecommunications lawyer, Adam Candeub, to lead the antitrust division at the Department of Justice, three people familiar with the decision said on Thursday.
Mr. Candeub, the general counsel at the Federal Communications Commission, was an author of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a road map of policy conservative proposals created for the Trump administration.
Mr. Trump told Mr. Candeub in an Oval Office meeting on Wednesday that he intended to nominate him, according to one of the people, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions. Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Federal Trade Commission chairman, Andrew Ferguson, were also in attendance, the person said.
The White House is expected to announce the nomination in the coming days, the people said.
If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Candeub would inherit a division that has faced mounting tension over its pullback on major lawsuits against prominent companies.
This year, the Justice Department settled a long-running monopoly lawsuit against Live Nation, the owner of Ticketmaster; a group of states later won a jury verdict against the company after refusing to sign on to the settlement. The agency has also allowed some corporate deals to sail through, including when it announced this month that it would not challenge Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
Mr. Candeub would also take over a late-stage lawsuit to break up Google’s ad tech dominance, as well as a case accusing Apple of making it hard for consumers to switch software and hardware.
Gail Slater, the previous head of the antitrust division, stepped down in February after roughly a year in the job. Mr. Candeub would replace the acting assistant attorney general for antitrust, Omeed Assefi.
The Justice Department and Mr. Candeub did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“We would not get ahead of the president on any potential personnel announcements,” the White House said in a statement. Bloomberg reported the plan earlier.
Mr. Candeub has served in both Trump administrations, first as a deputy assistant secretary of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, a division of the Commerce Department that oversees spectrum policy.
In his chapter for Project 2025 on the F.T.C., Mr. Candeub criticized big tech companies for impeding free speech online, listing “the interference of large internet firms with democratic political discourse” among the practices that “undermine liberal democracy.” He has also written papers calling for changes to Section 230, a federal legal shield that has protected internet companies from being sued for content they host.
He became general counsel for the F.C.C. in February, drawing praise from the commission’s chairman, Brendan Carr, on social media.
“The FCC will work to dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights to everyday Americans,” Mr. Carr posted. “I look forward to Adam Candeub serving as the FCC’s General Counsel. He is going to do great things!”
David McCabe contributed reporting.
