BUSTED: DOJ Fires Pro China Employee Posing As MAGA

New details have emerged on the firing of Roger Alford, the former Department of Justice (DOJ) official fired after opposing a China-focused national security merger.

According to records obtained by the Daily Caller, Alford claims to be a “genuine MAGA reformer” but has long attacked Trump-aligned economic policies and voiced support for the Chinese Communist government.

Alford claims he was fired for defending Trump’s populist economic policies against the president’s own DOJ, particularly regarding his stance against the merger between Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper. Although such mergers are generally prohibited, a senior national security official toldAxios that “in light of significant national security concerns, a settlement … serves the interests of the United States by strengthening domestic capabilities and is critical to countering Huawei and China.”

While speaking at the Tech Policy Institute Aspen Forum, Alford stated that his actions were not intended to jeopardize U.S. national security but were instead geared towards standing up for the “rule of law against the rule of lobbyists.”

“Today cases are being resolved based on political connections, not the legal merits,” he added. Alford also criticized several members of the Trump Administration while speaking at the event, which was sponsored by a number of major technology firms like Google.

“When the Department of Justice sued to block the HPE/Juniper merger in January 2025 prior to my arrival to the DOJ, Acting AAG Omeed Assefi, in consultation with senior leadership at the Department of Justice, found no evidence of national security concerns sufficient to justify allowing the merger to proceed,” Alford told the Daily Caller.  “The forthcoming Tunney Act proceedings will address whether national security arguments were a proper basis for the DOJ to settle the HPE/Juniper merger.”

The Trump Administration fired back at Alford’s comments with a fiery response, telling the Wall Street Journal that he is “the James Comey of antitrust—pursuing blind self-promotion and ego, while ignoring reality.”

Records obtained by the Daily Caller show that Alford spent nearly a decade criticizing Trump’s economic policies while expressing admiration for China. In a 2016 speech at Renmin University in Beijing, China, Alford criticized Trump’s idea for a trade war with China as “ludicrous and uninformed,” according to a summary published in the journal Frontiers of Law in China. 

In his remarks, Alford stated that his “main concern” for the presidential election was Trump’s increased economic pressure on China, according to the summary. Alford went on to compare the president with socialist Democratic Party candidate Bernie Sanders.

“Trump fundamentally distrusts basic tenets of free trade,” he said. The event was sponsored by a law school with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

Alford spent two years working as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division. During his time in office, Alford continued to praise “China’s rising economic power and its prominence in the competition sphere” and congratulated the nation on the growth of their economy.

While speaking with the Daily Caller, Alford claimed that he has stood up to China in the past despite praising certain elements of their economic rise.

“In the first Trump Administration, I worked closely with AAG Makan Delrahim to address China’s fundamental due process violations.  A core reason for negotiating the agreement on procedural fairness signed by seventy countries was to address Chinese due process violations.  I also led the Antitrust Division’s challenge of China’s antitrust violations, including the unanimous Supreme Court case of Animal Science Products v. Hebei, 585 U.S. __ (2018).  In the second Trump Administration I have led efforts to investigate and challenge China’s antitrust violations,” Alford told the outlet.

Alford continued by restating his commitment to the US and by emphasizing his “grave concerns about China as a national security threat.”