Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater, who was overseeing the long-suffering Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), announced on social media yesterday that she would be resigning from the position, effective immediately.
“It is with great sadness and abiding hope that I leave my role as (assistant attorney general) for Antitrust today. It was indeed the honor of a lifetime to serve in this role,” Slater wrote on her personal X account.
The sudden departure marks more intrigue at the Antitrust Division, which has been deeply involved in real estate matters over the last several years. Slater, who was nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed with significant bipartisan support, ended up serving less than a year.
Most recently, Slater signed off on a brief in one of the buyer commission cases back in December, which argued that rules created by trade organizations (like real estate associations) could still amount to violations of antitrust law, as “concerted action” by competitors.
Last summer, NAR Chief Advocacy Officer Shannon McGahn said that the Trump DOJ was more focused on the tech industry (Slater’s background is largely on the tech side of antitrust) and said the organization had a longstanding relationship with her.
Slater’s time at the DOJ was rocky, as one of her top deputies, Roger Alford, was forced out of his position back in August and subsequently claimed that antitrust enforcers “perverted justice” by allowing political connections and priorities to supersede the law.
Alford had previously served as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the landmark Burnett case.
Early in Slater’s tenure, the DOJ dropped its objections to a settlement in the MLS PIN case after requiring the parties to model their agreement on the NAR deal—a sharp about-face from what DOJ lawyers had previously argued.
More recently, the Antitrust Division had a chance to review the Compass-Anywhere merger, a dramatic consolidation in the brokerage market. According to reports from both Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal, Antitrust Division staff (and Slater specifically) wanted an “extended review” of the deal, but were overruled by other DOJ leaders.
The status of the broader DOJ antitrust investigation into NAR and real estate practices, which focused on an array of rules including Clear Cooperation and commission practices, remains unclear. The inquiry was launched under the first Trump administration, which reached an agreement with NAR in the waning days of his presidency.
But the DOJ under President Joe Biden revived the investigation, sparking a court battle that lasted the better part of his administration, with appellate courts eventually allowing the DOJ to continue scrutinizing NAR policy.
