A member of President Donald Trump’s transition team, Makan Delrahim, will be nominated to head the US Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, the White House said on Monday.
He reportedly worked as a lobbyist for Anthem from July 2015 to September 2016 on antitrust issues associated with the insurer’s proposed $54 billion acquisition of Cigna, according to the International Business Times.
Delrahim is expected to move to the Justice Department after finishing up in the White House counsel’s office, where he has worked to steer Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch through the Senate confirmation process.
The Senate must vote to confirm Delrahim once the nomination is formalized.
As the proposed chief of the Antitrust Division, Delrahim would review corporate mergers at a time when many investors and corporate executives are anticipating a more relaxed view of deal-making after years of tough oversight by the administration of former President Barack Obama.
Antitrust experts who have followed Delrahim’s career have said that when it comes to merger approvals he would follow in the footsteps of a former boss, Hewitt Pate, who was assistant attorney general of antitrust from 2003 to 2005. Delrahim was Pate’s deputy, specializing in international antitrust.
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