Justice Department antitrust lawyer Roger Alford accused senior aides to Attorney General Pam Bondi of cutting backroom deals with Trump-aligned lobbyists, according to The Wall Street Journal. He said the deals influenced the settlement of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks. Alford, who was dismissed last month along with another senior enforcer, said the settlement undermined competition and was shaped by political favoritism from Bondi’s aides Chad Mizelle and Stanley Woodward. Alford urged a federal court in San Jose to scrutinize potential backroom dealings in the HPE-Juniper merger and called on the court to block the deal. A Justice Department spokesman defended the HPE settlement as merit-based and dismissed Alford as self-promoting and ego-driven.