Journalists Make Case for President Trump Interference in AT&T-Time Warner Deal

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Journalists are telling a federal court that there were solid reasons to believe that President Donald Trump's animus toward CNN played a role in the Administration's attempt to block the merger of CNN parent Time Warner with AT&T and that a lower court should have allowed that "selective enforcement" defense to be introduced and evidence of that claim presented. That came in an amicus brief filed with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in the Justice Department's appeal of that lower court ruling, which ultimately went in favor of AT&T and Time Warner, but did not include discovery on the issue of whether the President's concern about a media critic translated to DOJ's opposition to the merger. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed the brief, a group that brands the President an existential threat to press freedom, a position shared by other journalist organizations. It said that the President had repeatedly attacked both CNN and the merger, and that there were "indications" the White House sought to "interfere" with the decision to sue. It told the court that the merger challenge was launched "in the context of a broader 'war' on the media by the president," and that the standard the lower court used to deny the discovery could make it hard for news organizations to obtain discovery in future cases where the Trump Administration "selectively enforces antitrust or other complex regulations or laws to punish negative--or coerce positive--news coverage.


Journalists Make Case for President Trump Interference in AT&T-Time Warner Deal