◼ POLITICS Bloomberg Businessweek June 17, 2019
37A prolificwriteroftreatisesonantitrustarcana,
Simons,61,servedtwopreviousFTCstints,oncein
thelate’80sunderReaganandagainintheearly
yearsoftheGeorgeW.Bushadministration.“Ifeel
asthoughI havebeenessentiallytrainingforthisjob
sincelawschool,”hewrotebeforehis 2018 confir-
mationhearing.Thelow-profilelawyerseeksbipar-
tisansupportfortheagency’sactions,whichhas
oftendelayedmattersatthecommission,saysa per-
sonfamiliarwiththematter.Heprefersnottobring
casesthatcouldbeseenaspoliticallydrivenand
seemsuncomfortableinthespotlight.
The49-year-oldIranian-bornDelrahim,bycon-
trast,is politicallyambitiousandpleasedthatanti-
trustis front-pagenews,accordingtothosewho
knowhim.Asa formerCapitolHillstaffer,lobbyist,
andJusticeofficial,hispathtobecominga topanti-
trustenforcerhasalsobeenmorecircuitous.His
backgroundincludesthreeyearsaschiefcounselto
theSenateJudiciaryCommitteeintheearly2000s
anda jobasa patentlawyer.Heevendabbledin
movieproduction,takingclassesatUCLA’sfilm
schoolandinvestingina moviecalledTrashFire.
AtthebeginningoftheTrumpadministration,
Delrahimworkedforthen-WhiteHousecounsel
DonMcGahnandhelpedshepherdtheSupreme
CourtnominationofNeilGorsuch.Formorethan
a decadebeforethat,he’dbeeninprivateprac-
ticeatBrownsteinHyattFarberSchreck.There
hedispensedadviceonmergersandotheranti-
trustissuestocompaniesincludingGoogle,which
hiredhimin 2007 tolobbyforitsacquisitionof
digital advertisingcompany DoubleClick.He
alsoadvisedAppleonpatentreformlegislation.
Becauseofthoseroles,SenatorElizabethWarren
ofMassachusetts,who’sseekingtheDemocratic
nominationforpresident,is callingonDelrahim
torecusehimselffrominvestigatingeithercom-
pany.TheJusticeDepartmentdidn’trespondtoa
requestforcomment.
BothjoinedtheTrumpadministrationascalls
fortougherenforcementoftechplatformswere
beginningtocrescendoontheLeftandtheRight.
Trumphassometimesledthechorusintweets
andinterviews:Ina recentcall-intoCNBC,hesaid
“thereis somethinggoingonintermsofmonopoly”
andtheU.S.shouldcopytheEuropeanUnionin
suingandfiningtechcompaniesforbillions.
The administration sought out antitrust
enforcers who would take a hard look at Google in
particular. The acting chairman of the FTC in 2017,
Republican Maureen Ohlhausen, campaigned to
keep her job by promoting “regulatory humility,”
evidently anticipating that Trump would want a soft
touch on mergers and business conduct. She also
sought the support of McGahn and Ivanka Trump.
But Ohlhausen had voted with four other FTC
commissioners to close the Google investigation
without bringing charges. That was a black mark
in the eyes of Google foes, including Oracle Corp.,
which jumped on the change in administration as
an opportunity for the FTC to take another run at
Google. The White House passed on Ohlhausen
because she wasn’t seen as someone who’d get
tough on the world’s biggest search engine, say
three people familiar with the matter, and soon
settled on Simons, then a partner at law firm Paul,
Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in Washington.
Trump told Simons in a meeting before his nomina-
tion not to be afraid to be a tough enforcer, says one
ofthepeople.“I’mproudofmytimeattheFTC,”
Ohlhausensays.Oracledeclinedtocomment.
WorkinginSimons’sfavor,a personfamiliar
with the matter says, was his record in the
Microsoft case, which White House advisers had
discussed. Among his clients in the early days of
the web were airline reservation service Sabre,
now Sabre Corp., and Sun Microsystems, now
owned by Oracle, both of which raised concerns
about how Microsoft tried to squelch competition
from rival browser Netscape. Simons was among
those who pushed the U.S. to bring an antitrust
case, basing his argument on a 1951 Supreme
Court decision that found an Ohio newspaper had
violated antitrust laws when it denied advertising
space to a company that also wanted to buy ads
on local radio.
Delrahim had a cameo in the Microsoft case,
too. The company’s chief antagonist on Capitol Hill
was then-Senator Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican
who chaired the Judiciary Committee. Delrahim
joinedthecommittee’sstaffjustasthelawsuitgot
underway.Threeanda halfyearslater,whenthe
casewassettled,thecommitteeheldahearing
in which Hatch said he favored tough antitrust
enforcementoverheavy-handedregulationofthe
day-to-daymarketwhenthetechnologyindustry
becomesoverconcentrated.Delrahim,then32,was
sittingdirectlybehindHatchashespoke.
Almostimmediatelyafterjoiningtheantitrust
divisioninSeptember2017, Delrahim sued to block
AT&T Inc.’s takeover of Time Warner Inc., which was
expected to win approval because AT&T and Time
Warner didn’t compete directly. The traditional fix
for such mergers involved imposing conditions on
how the companies could operate post-merger.
Delrahim, echoing Hatch, rejected that approach
as requiring too much oversight of the company.
As a candidate, Trump had vowed to block the
merger, sparking speculation that Delrahim hadThe Trump
administration
sought out
antitrust
enforcerswho
wouldtake
ahard look at
Google● Number of antitrust
cases the FTC filed
3020100
2013 2018