Received this email from a friend? Sign up here.

TGIT. Condé Nast is shutting down Self magazine. Tech execs are promoting an 'AI tribunal' for critical stories. Netflix is about to report Q1 earnings. Let's get to it...

State AGs get a big antitrust win

"You made antitrust history today. You fought the good fight, you finished the race, and you kept the faith."

That's what Gail Slater said to the state attorneys general who convinced a New York jury that Live Nation and Ticketmaster operated as a monopoly, hurting the entertainment industry and driving up fees for fans.

It was a striking message since Slater was the head of the Justice Department's antitrust division and was working with the states to break up Live Nation until she was forced out in February.

President Trump got personally involved and "intervened" in the Live Nation case, "urging aides to reach a settlement," according to the WSJ. 

With Slater gone, the DOJ just did that, striking a secret settlement during the second week of the trial. But the states pressed on and prevailed at trial.

There are "multiple implications of this decision," antimonopolist writer Matt Stoller wrote last night. "First, juries do not like big business, and are willing to rule against them... Second, state attorneys general matter now on antitrust law in a way they never have. The states are on their way to blocking the Nexstar-TEGNA merger, they just won this case, and they are likely to file a case against Paramount-Warner."

The Live Nation verdict certainly puts some wind in the sails of the Democratic state AGs that are reviewing the Paramount deal.

"In the face of dwindling antitrust enforcement by the Trump administration, this verdict shows just how far states can go to protect our residents from big corporations that are using their power to illegally raise prices and rip off Americans,” California AG Rob Bonta said in a statement yesterday.

How Trump put his thumb on the Ticketmaster scale

CNN's Kara Scannell, who was in court yesterday, wrote that Judge Arun Subramanian will now hold a second trial "to decide what remedies are warranted, including whether to grant the states’ request to break up the company or make other structural changes such as ordering the sale of businesses."

The judge will also review the DOJ settlement, and he may opt not to approve it. He was certainly perturbed to find out about it mid-trial.

The Trump angle to all this has been undercovered. As I mentioned on CNN when the verdict broke, Live Nation lobbied the Trump administration hard to blunt the impact of a case that originated in the Biden years. (Remember when the company put Trump ally Ric Grenell on its board?)

The WSJ has had the best reporting about what happened behind the scenes with "MAGA's top antitrust fixer" Mike Davis and other Trumpworld insiders. "Trump heard about the Live Nation case from friends," including Ari Emanuel, and "after the trial began in March, Trump began calling around to ask why it hadn’t been settled. What’s the holdup? he wanted to know, according to people familiar with the matter."

"It was an extraordinary role for a president to play in a routine antitrust investigation," Dana Mattioli, Rebecca Ballhaus and Josh Dawsey wrote. They reported that the DOJ settlement deal that let Live Nation off the hook was hashed out at the White House.

Earlier this week, six Democratic senators wrote to Judge Subramanian, saying the deal was apparently made "in response to political pressure rather than the public interest."

State AG says 'we're on our own'

The Live Nation case highlights a divide between the feds and the states about enforcing antitrust law (and ultimately what it means to protect consumers). Keep in mind that some Republican state AGs brought resources to bear against Live Nation; it wasn't just a blue state effort.

Earlier this week, Colorado's AG Phil Weiser told Bloomberg that the state attorneys general looking into the Paramount deal assume that "we're on our own," unable to "rely on" the federal government's resources.

"We are at a scary moment for antitrust where the Department of Justice has lost its credibility," Weiser said.

As for the Paramount-WBD deal, he said, "The states are reviewing this deal together, and we are on notice that the federal government's actions are no longer ones we can expect to be based on the merits."

 >> Bonta's office said earlier this week that the "robust review" of Paramount is "ongoing." Any action by the states would likely take place this summer.