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Trump directed Gary Cohn to pressure DOJ to block AT&T-Time Warner deal: report


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In an explosive new investigation into the relationship between the Trump White House and Fox News, the magazine reported new details that contradict the administration’s assurances that Trump had no role in the Justice Department’s lawsuit trying to stop the merger.

 

Citing an unidentified “well-informed source,” The New Yorker reported that in summer 2017, months before the Justice Department filed its antitrust lawsuit, Trump called Cohn and then-chief of staff John Kelly into the Oval Office and told them that he wanted to “make sure” the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking to block the merger was filed.

 

“I’ve been telling Cohn to get this lawsuit filed and nothing’s happened!” Trump told Kelly, according to the report. “I’ve mentioned it 50 times. And nothing’s happened. I want to make sure it’s filed. I want that deal blocked!”

 

Trump repeatedly criticized the $85 billion deal on the campaign trail and as president, vowing to block the merger and saying that it was “not good for the country.”  But, according to The New Yorker, many saw Trump’s opposition to the deal as motivated by his disdain for CNN, which is owned by Time Warner. But the Justice Department has insisted that the president’s unhappiness with CNN, which he often targets in tweets and at rallies as “fake news,” did not influence the case.

 

After Trump’s direction in the 2017 meeting, The New Yorker reported, Cohn refused to follow the instruction, knowing that it would be “highly improper” for Trump to involve himself in stopping the merger.

 

“Don’t you f---ing dare call the Justice Department,” he reportedly told Kelly. “We are not going to do business that way.”

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/432431-trump-directed-gary-cohn-to-pressure-justice-dept-to-block-att-time

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In a perfect world there would be real pushback against the merger/acquisition of giant media companies so I’d support a Trump administration (or any admin) for trying to block these kinds of media mergers. But in a world where Comcast was already allowed to buy NBC/Universal there’s no rational argument as to why AT&T can’t buy Time Warner Media or Disney can’t buy Fox. 

 

But in Trumpworld, he only gives a shit because he wants to hurt CNN. Fuck that.

 

Though honestly, I wonder if being bought by AT&T will hurt CNN more then them being independent...

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Should never have been allowed to happen. Trump actually tried to do something good here... 

 

but you know he did it solely because his conservative media empire he’s trying to throw together would be threatened by content providers so large

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