Justice Dept.’s Key Officials in Pursuing the AT&T Lawsuit

The names of 25 government lawyers are listed on the last page of the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking to block the proposed $39 billion merger between AT&T and T-Mobile USA. But two senior lawyers who played crucial roles in bringing the lawsuit are nowhere to be found on the complaint.

Christine A. Varney, the government’s former top antitrust lawyer, oversaw the investigation into the planned merger until July, when she said she was leaving the Justice Department to join the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. When she departed, the investigation was in its final stages but the government had not yet decided to bring a lawsuit.

And James M. Cole, the No. 2 official in the Justice Department, made the ultimate decision to bring what is the Obama administration’s most significant antitrust enforcement action to date. He announced the lawsuit at a news conference, one of his more prominent public appearances since he assumed the post in January.