AT&T Case Vaults Antitrust Chief From Obscurity to Spotlight

Makan Delrahim was virtually unknown outside the insular world of antitrust law until he dropped a bombshell lawsuit this week to block AT&T Inc.’s megadeal to buy Time Warner Inc. The outcome is likely to establish him either as a bold enforcer or someone in over his head.

Delrahim was working under President Donald Trump in the White House counsel’s office before he went to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division in September. Some thought he lacked the antitrust chops that many predecessors have brought to the job. A longtime lobbyist steeped in the ways of Capitol Hill, he didn’t have the hands-on merger experience of antitrust attorneys at elite firms wrangling deals for corporate clients.