Trump plans to nominate Adam Candeub to head the Justice Department’s antitrust office.

President Trump plans to nominate tech critic and telecommunications lawyer Adam Candeub to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division, three people familiar with the decision said Thursday.

Mr. Candeub, a senior counsel at the Federal Communications Commission, authored the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a road map of political conservative proposals created for the Trump administration.

Mr. Trump told Mr. Candeub in an Oval Office meeting on Wednesday that he intended to nominate him, according to one of the people, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity and described private discussions. Attorney General Todd Blanche and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson were also in attendance, the person said.

The White House is expected to announce the nomination in the coming days, the people said.

If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Candeub would inherit a division that has faced months of mounting tension over its work investigating whether companies have violated antitrust laws in an administration that has been willing to make deals with big business. The Justice Department has faced growing criticism in recent months for letting some deals slide, including when it announced this month that it would not challenge Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

Mr. Candeub would also take over the latest phase of a lawsuit to break Google’s dominance of ad tech, as well as a case accusing Apple of making it harder for consumers to switch software and hardware.

Gail Slater, the previous head of the antitrust division, resigned in February after about a year in the role. Mr Candeub would replace the acting Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Omeed Assefi.

The Justice Department and Mr. Candeub did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“We would not preempt the president in any personnel announcements,” the White House said in a statement. Bloomberg announced the plan formerly.

Mr. Candeub served in both Trump administrations, first as deputy assistant secretary of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the division of the Commerce Department that oversees spectrum policy.

In his Project 2025 chapter on the FTC, Mr. Candeub criticized big tech companies for impeding free speech online and cited “interference by big internet firms in democratic political discourse” among practices that “undermine liberal democracy.” He also wrote papers calling for changes to Section 230, the federal legal shield that protects Internet companies from being sued for the content they host.

He became the FCC’s general counsel in February and drew praise from Commission Chairman Brendan Carr on social media.

“The FCC will work to dismantle the censorship cartel and restore the right to free speech to ordinary Americans,” Mr. Carr wrote. “I look forward to Adam Candeub serving as FCC General Counsel. He will do great things!”

David McCabe contributed reporting.