Reps Conyers Jr., Cicilline push for hearing on Trump's involvement in AT&T-Time Warner merger

Two top House Judiciary Committee Democratic Reps are pushing the panel to hold a hearing examining the White House’s role in the “troubling pattern of potential political interference by President Trump” in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) review of AT&T’s merger with Time Warner. DOJ sources recently said that antitrust officials had rejected an offer from AT&T to divest from CNN in order to win approval for the $85 billion deal. AT&T officials flatly denied that the offer was ever on the table — or would be. Ranking Member John Conyers Jr. (R-MI) and Rep David Cicilline (D-RI) expressed their concern with Trump's possible involvement, noting that he “has repeatedly criticized CNN for the nature of its coverage of him.” In their letter, the lawmakers also highlighted Trump’s tweets disparaging CNN as "#FakeNews.”  The lawmakers also contrasted the Trump administration’s willingness to comment on the AT&T-Time Warner deal with its comparative silence on the Sinclair-Tribune merger, which critics say will give an enormous television broadcast reach to the expressly conservative outlet. Reps Conyers and Cicilline urged Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) to hold a hearing on the matter, in light of these concerns of potential impartiality and intervention in the merger.