Here's Elizabeth Warren's Big Gripe With the AT&T-Time Warner Deal

Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) says that Time Warner should be blocked from using Washington’s so-called revolving door to push through its controversial deal with AT&T.

The media giant has hired lawyer Christine Varney -- a partner at Cravath, Swaine and Moore -- to make the case to the government that AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner would not kill competition. Varney is one of the nation’s top antitrust lawyers working for corporate America. But six years ago, Varney was the government’s head antitrust cop, leading the Obama administration’s effort to crack down on deals that could result in higher prices. Now, she is one of the attorneys who’s being paid big bucks to try to get the AT&T-Time Warner merger approved. “Americans have had it with regulators like Varney, who talk a good game about holding the bad guys accountable while counting down the days until they can collect a fat paycheck from the corporations they were supposed to regulate,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren tells Fortune. “The revolving door is out of control. If we want to hold corporate lawbreakers accountable, we can’t ask their friends to do it.”