Justice Department to appeal its loss in the AT&T-Time Warner trial

The Justice Department filed an appeal challenging its loss in the AT&T-Time Warner antitrust trial. AT&T completed its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner a few weeks ago after a federal judge rejected the Justice Department’s argument that the deal would be anti-competitive. “My guess is that the government is going to try to show that a lot of important evidence was rejected by the judge, and the judge put too much weight on the testimony of the merging parties," said Gene Kimmelman, a former Justice Department antitrust official who now leads Public Knowledge. 

AT&T said that judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia correctly decided the case. “While the losing party in litigation always has the right to appeal if it wishes, we are surprised that the DOJ has chosen to do so under these circumstances,” said AT&T general counsel David McAtee. "We are ready to defend the Court’s decision at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.”