The Department of Justice (DOJ) is open to settlement discussions, but merging parties should know that the “threat of litigation” is real, said Omeed Assefi, acting assistant attorney general of the antitrust division.

In previously recorded remarks at a conference hosted by the German competition authority in Berlin on 12 March, Assefi said his enforcement priority is to provide the American people with economic security.

“That manifests itself on the specific agenda items we look to focus on,” he said. “That’s kitchen table issues—healthcare, food costs, housing, transportation, insurance, entertainment and any other markets that have a direct impact on the lives of everyday Americans.”

On merger enforcement, Assefi emphasized that he wants to be aggressive, but will get out of the way of procompetitive deals.

The DOJ is open to “genuine discussion about what it would take to let the merger go through,” Assefi said. That means settlements and consent decrees are on the table, he said, adding that structural settlements are the agency’s preference.

“But we want to make sure that the threat of litigation is there, and without that threat of litigation, nobody would ever be willing to meet us where our concerns are,” he said.

If “the party is not willing to meet us where we are at on the settlement, then it’s time to file a complaint and litigate. And that’s the best part of the job,” Assefi said.

Assefi took over as acting assistant attorney general of the antitrust division after Gail Slater’s departure in February, returning to the acting role he also filled before Slater was confirmed by the Senate in March 2025.

During that short period while Assefi was in charge, the DOJ sued to block the merger of HPE and Juniper on 30 January 2025. It remains the only merger litigation brought by the DOJ during the second Trump administration. The agency settled the Juniper/HPE matter in June, amidst controversy of political meddling and the removal of two of Slater’s deputies.

In his remarks, Assefi complained that there was a perception that blocking deals is not conservative. “Anytime we want to block a merger, we’re accused of being radical leftists who don’t believe in the free market,” he said.

To help assuage that perception, he said that agency staff hung up a sign on the conference room door where DOJ meets with merging parties to remind them that “before you walk into the conference room, you concede and recognize that in the prior year, we approved something like 99.5% of all mergers submitted for merger review,” Assefi said.

Assefi also addressed the DOJ’s combined efforts with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to revamp the guidelines on collaborations among competitors. The agencies launched a joint public inquiry seeking input on the new guidelines in February.

“From our standpoint, if you want to be aggressive on enforcement, you should also provide people with the rules of the road to let private industry know what is okay and what’s not okay and where are the lines,” Assefi said.