Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“On Monday, the monopolization trial against Live Nation picked up where it left off a week earlier, with Jay Marciano, CEO of AEG Entertainment, the nation’s second-largest live concert promoter, under direct questioning. But there was a different lawyer in the lead plaintiff’s chair: Jeffrey Kessler, a superstar private litigator who successfully prosecuted cases against NASCAR and the NCAA, was seated in place of David Dahlquist, the Justice Department’s lead trial attorney. The reason for the swap is that DOJ settled their claims against Live Nation on March 9, and pressured many of the 39 states (and the District of Columbia) in the case, particularly the Republican ones, to go along with them. But in the end, only seven states did so …. The other 32 … failed to come to agreement after forced settlement talks from the judge.” (03/17/26)