A court filing disclosed that White House counsel was also involved in finalizing the deal, which a jury later contradicted with a monopoly verdict
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Live Nation disclosed in a court filing this week that CEO Michael Rapino spoke directly with President Donald Trump in February about the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against the company, according to The Associated Press. The conversation came weeks before the DOJ reached a surprise settlement that most states rejected as too weak.
According to the filing, the conversation ranged across multiple aspects of Live Nation's operations, and while the ongoing DOJ litigation surfaced as a topic, Rapino and Trump did not get into any specifics about what a potential resolution might look like. The White House has declined to comment, referring questions to the Justice Department, which has not commented.
Beyond the Rapino-Trump conversation, the filing reveals that White House counsel's office lawyers participated in finalizing the settlement. A term sheet capturing the agreed terms was signed on March 5 following a meeting that brought together Live Nation and officials from the DOJ antitrust division, the attorney general's office, the deputy attorney general's office, and the White House counsel's office, CNN reported. Neither the presiding judge nor the DOJ attorneys trying the case had been told the deal was coming before it was publicly announced four days later, midway through the trial's second week.
Longtime Trump allies Kellyanne Conway, Mike Davis, and Richard Grenell were among those named in the filing as participants in the broader negotiations. David Dahlquist, who led the DOJ's trial team, departed the agency roughly a month after the deal was struck; speaking at an industry conference recently, he acknowledged having been cut out of the settlement process entirely and said that, even after the agreement was announced, his view was that the government had a winning case.
The disclosure adds to scrutiny of White House involvement in Justice Department decision-making. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Trump personally pushed aides to reach the deal, and congressional Democrats have called it a "sweetheart deal," according to Billboard. Gail Slater's removal from her role leading the DOJ's antitrust division also occurred in February, meaning she was ousted the same month Rapino and Trump spoke.
The DOJ settlement required Ticketmaster to allow rival vendors access to ticketing at certain amphitheaters and capped service fees at some venues, but stopped short of requiring any structural changes to the company.
More than 30 states declined to accept the federal settlement and pressed forward at trial, where a jury returned a verdict that Live Nation had illegally monopolized the live music sector; the jury also determined that the company's practices had cost ticket buyers an additional $1.72 per ticket. States are now seeking damages of up to $700 million and have called for Live Nation to sell Ticketmaster. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian will decide whether to approve the DOJ settlement and determine remedies in light of the verdict.
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