The MAGA DOJ Sold Out Every Ticketmaster Customer in America. Then It Took a Victory Lap.

On Tuesday, a federal jury in Manhattan found Live Nation and Ticketmaster liable on every antitrust claim brought against them — monopoly maintenance, unlawful tying, overcharging fans — in what California AG Rob Bonta called a "historic and resounding victory." The victory belongs to 33 states and D.C., who tried the case after the Trump DOJ abandoned it five weeks earlier in a surprise settlement that required no breakup, no admission of liability, and no money to the Treasury. The DOJ's Antitrust Division then posted a congratulatory tweet calling the verdict "a win for everyone in our country besides Live Nation." The DOJ was not at counsel table when this verdict came in. It already left.

The backstory is about as clean a corruption narrative as you'll find in federal antitrust enforcement. Live Nation donated $500,000 to Trump's inaugural committee and put Trump envoy Richard Grenell on its board while the case was pending. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump personally pressed for a settlement after Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel — a Live Nation board member — lobbied him directly. The DOJ's Senate-confirmed antitrust chief, Gail Slater, was ousted weeks before trial; her deputy Roger Alford had already been fired the previous summer for what the administration called "insubordination" and what Alford later described as refusing to let MAGA lobbyists dictate enforcement decisions. The term sheet was finalized at a March 5 White House meeting. The DOJ's own trial team learned about it hours before the public did. Judge Subramanian learned at 8 p.m. the night before it was announced and called the concealment "absolutely unacceptable" and "absolute disrespect for the court, the jury, and this entire process."

What the DOJ settled for tells you everything about what the settlement was designed to accomplish. The states sought — and now have a jury verdict supporting — a structural breakup of Ticketmaster from Live Nation. The DOJ settled for behavioral remedies: a fee cap that applies only to the handful of amphitheaters Live Nation owns, an "open ticketing" API, and an eight-year extension of the same 2010 consent decree that Live Nation was already found to have violated in 2019. A Harvard antitrust scholar called it a "Band-Aid." Six senators wrote Judge Subramanian that "every single sign points to a backroom deal." Senator Klobuchar put it more directly: the deal "wasn't made in the courtroom — it was made in D.C."

The DOJ's settlement is still pending Tunney Act approval before the same judge who just watched 33 states prove everything the DOJ gave away. Judge Subramanian now has a jury verdict on his docket establishing that Live Nation is an illegal monopoly, that it overcharged consumers, and that behavioral remedies — the exact type the DOJ settlement relies on — already failed once under the 2010 decree. He has every factual and legal predicate he needs to reject the settlement as not in the public interest. The states, meanwhile, have a full liability verdict to build a breakup order on. The DOJ congratulated everyone on the win — which is now the same DOJ that backstabbed every American who's ever bought a concert ticket.