Judge Rules AT&T Can't See Trump White House Communications About Time Warner Merger

The judge presiding over the Justice Department's attempt to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger has ruled that the White House's private communications on the merger will not be released. The Verge reports: When the department said in November that it would sue to block the mega-merger, thoughts immediately turned to the White House. President Trump has made no secret of his disdain for CNN, and some watchers questioned whether the White House's hand was present, guiding the Justice Department as a way to exact revenge on the Time Warner-owned property. The Justice Department has denied any wrongdoing, and said it is only looking to block the merger on the grounds that it is anti-competitive. But to prove the theory, AT&T and Time Warner requested communications between the Justice Department and White House that could have shown the department was engaging in "selective enforcement." In today's decision, the judge on the case said the companies had fallen "far short" of the legal bar required to receive the documents.

Comments

Re:Which means it is just going to happen again

[Hetero]

2006: The AT&T split from 25 years prior was ondone. All the Baby Bells became again AT&T. Didn't seem to make much difference. This happened in the Bush administration.

2008 and Onward: Too big to jail, Eric Holder: "The size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if you do prosecute, if you do bring a criminal charge, it will have a negative impact on the national economy."

Re:Best we can hope for

[Anonymous Coward]

Aww cmon PopeCrapso.

Your idol Obama would’ve rubber stamped this.

So Obama would’ve done the wrong thing AND for corrupt reasons because we all know this to be wrong.

But yeah - Trumps the bad guy in your pitiful cartoon mind.