Tag: AT&T

WarnerMedia's new CEO John Stankey speaks to CNN's Alisyn Camerota, John Berman, and Brian Stelter about the recently approved merger between Time Warner and AT&T.

Time's Up For The Trump family On Thursday, June 14, the Attorney General of New York, Barbara Underwood, filed a lawsuit to bar the Trump family from getting involved with any charities. In addition, at Mr. Trump's behest, the Trump Foundation illegally provided extensive support to his 2016 presidential campaign by using the Trump Foundation's name and funds it raised from the public to promote his campaign for presidency, including in the days before the Iowa nominating caucuses." Is time up for the Trump family shenanigans? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2018 ....Schneiderman, who ran the Clinton campaign in New York, never had the guts to bring this ridiculous case, which lingered in their office for almost 2 years. The Justice Department found that James Comey, the ex-FBI director turned author, was insubordinate in his investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, which he publicly discussed while she was running against Trump for president. "We found that it was extraordinary and insubordinate for Comey to do so, and we found none of his reasons to be a persuasive basis for deviating from well-established Department policies." The IG found no evidence of political bias in the investigation. I respect the DOJ IG office, which is why I urged them to do this review. — James Comey (@Comey) June 14, 2018 Trump Wasn't a Fan of AT&T Hopping in Bed With Time Warner Time Warner believes that the AT&T Inc. (T - Get Report) merger was somewhat political. TextColorWhiteTransparencyOpaqueBackgroundColorBlackTransparencyOpaqueWindowColorBlackTransparencyTransparent Font Size50% Text Edge StyleNone Font FamilyProportional Sans-Serif Advertisement The Department of Justice claimed that an acquisition of Time Warner Inc. (TWX - Get Report) by AT&T violated antitrust laws and took the company to court.

In a statement, Time Warner spokesman Gary Ginsberg was blunt on the issue, calling the case "political in its motivation." "The Court's resounding rejection of the government's arguments is confirmation that this was a case that was baseless, political in its motivation and should never have been brought in the first place," Ginsberg said. There was widespread speculation before the trial began that the Justice Department's lawsuit against AT&T's $85 billion bid to take over Time Warner was at least partially motivated by politics. But the Justice Department repeatedly denied that its suit was influenced by Trump. As soon as he won the election, there were questions in media and business circles about whether his administration might try to stand in AT&T's way. When Justice Department antitrust chief Makan Delrahim brought the lawsuit last year against AT&T, breaking with years of precedent, the suspicions were seriously heightened. But Delrahim denied that there was interference. "Personally, I've always felt that that was a deal that's not good for the country," he said. "I think your pricing is going to go up. And President Trump had no immediate tweet on the ruling.

The decision allowing AT&T to buy Time Warner could reshape the media industry. It's unknown if government will appeal. CNN's Jessica Schneider reports.

The disclosure that Donald Trump’s legal fixer Michael Cohen was quietly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to advise corporations highlights the inability of US laws to prevent secretive “shadow lobbying”, analysts said. Sign up for the Guardian's US daily email Read more As Cohen said he provided consultancy services rather than lobbying, which involves directly advocating for a client to government officials, he was not required under US law to register as a lobbyist and disclose the payments in public filings. No allegation has been made relating to Cohen’s consultancy work. Professor James Thurber of American University, who has researched lobbying for decades, said it was too easy for influential people in Washington to make money around the legislative process without informing the public, in what is loosely termed shadow lobbying. But the company has confirmed it also paid Cohen’s company Essential Consultants for “insights into understanding the new administration” beginning in early 2017, when Trump was inaugurated. Trump’s administration was last year considering whether to allow an $85bn merger of AT&T and Time Warner. Paul Miller, president of the National Institute For Lobbying & Ethics, a lobbying trade group, said of this decline in numbers last year: “The simple reality is people are reclassifying what they do as not direct lobbying and thus they are no longer covered by the Lobbying Disclosure Act.” Two other companies that paid Cohen have in recent years decided against paying registered lobbyists to advocate for them in Washington. According to public filings, Columbus Nova has not done so since paying McGuireWoods $16,000 in 2010 to lobby on business regulations. Avenatti’s document said KAI, which is competing for a Pentagon contract, paid Cohen $150,000 in November last year. KAI has not used a registered lobbyist in Washington since paying American Defense International $20,000 in February 2002, according to congressional filings.

But the trial itself, starting later this month, is shaping up to be a fight focused on classic issues in antitrust law. In court filings on Friday, the Justice Department and AT&T laid out the arguments that they plan to make in the trial. Just the opposite: It is about making Time Warner and AT&T more competitive during a revolutionary transformation that is occurring in the video programming marketplace.” The trial, one of the biggest antitrust showdowns in decades, will begin March 19 in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. AT&T originally argued to the court that the Justice Department’s suit was a case of “selective enforcement” — that the government was essentially blocking the deal because the president was against it. The company would have a leading position to negotiate licensing deals with rival telecom and media firms. Rivals such as Comcast, Dish and Sony are expected to be called as witnesses to reveal details about their business dealings with AT&T and Time Warner in the past. The Justice Department is expected to argue that a combined AT&T and Time Warner would have the incentive to make it harder for competing media companies to distribute their programming through AT&T, and for Time Warner brands to limit their distribution outside of AT&T. AT&T said it would challenge the government’s arguments that the merger would increase consumer prices and hamper competition by raising licensing fees for Time Warner content. The company said it would argue that the merger of two companies that do not compete would be a stronger competitor in a market that had many new companies from Silicon Valley, like Facebook and Netflix. “As will be demonstrated at trial, the new video revolution is defined by the spectacular rise of Netflix, Amazon, Google, and other vertically integrated, direct-to-consumer technology companies as market leaders in both video programming and video distribution,” AT&T said in its brief.