Trump's DOJ Antitrust Pick Has a Side Project: Ending Porn

Adam Candeub is up for a big job at the Department of Justice. He'd run the antitrust division, which is the team that goes after companies like Google and Apple for playing unfairly. But there's another side to Candeub that matters a lot more to the adult industry.

For years, Candeub has argued that porn is already illegal in America. His idea: old obscenity laws never went away. Prosecutors just stopped using them. He's not the only one saying this. The Daily Signal ran two articles making the same case recently. But Candeub has actually mapped out how to bring these old laws back.

His plan works like this. Local prosecutors in conservative areas bring obscenity cases first, since juries there are more likely to convict. Then federal prosecutors go after big platforms using an old 1973 law called the Comstock Act. That law bans mailing "obscene" material across state lines. This is the same combo a task force used years ago, before Obama shut it down. Candeub wants that task force's playbook back in action.

He also likes last year's Supreme Court ruling on age verification. That's the ruling behind all the ID checks popping up on adult sites now. Candeub sees it as proof that courts are open to more rules on adult content. He's even talked about tracking people's online behavior to keep kids away from porn. That would mean a huge new surveillance system. Nothing like it legally exists right now.

Here's the catch, though. Antitrust isn't the same as obscenity law. Even if Candeub gets the job, he can't just start filing porn cases. That's not what his role covers.

So why should anyone care? Because platforms don't wait around for a court case. They watch which way things are heading and act early. OnlyFans, banks, payment companies have all shown they'll change their rules the second things look risky, court case or not. Just ask any creator who got debanked overnight with no warning. The threat alone is enough.

That's really the whole game. Candeub doesn't need a new law. He doesn't need to win a single case. He just needs platforms to believe the risk is rising. Then they'll tighten their own rules before anyone forces them to.

This is exactly what people warned about when age verification laws first started spreading state to state. The goal was protecting kids. Nobody argued with that part. But once these legal tools exist, they don't always stay limited to their original purpose.