White House rejects House Judiciary Democrats' request for documents on AT&T-Time Warner merger

White House counsel Pat Cipollone told House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Rep David Cicilline (D-RI) that the White House is rejecting their request for information that would shed light on whether President Donald Trump tried to sway the Justice Department into opposing the AT&T-Time Warner merger. Cipollone said that the documents requested by the lawmakers were shielded under confidentiality protections afforded to the president and his advisers. "As I have conveyed to the Committee before, we stand ready to work to accommodate all congressional committee requests for information related to a legitimate legislative purpose,” Cipollone wrote. “We cannot, however, provide the Committee with protected communications between the President and his most senior advisors that are at the very core of the Executive Branch's confidentiality interests.” Chairmen Nadler and Cicilline made their request in March after The New Yorker published a story reporting that Trump had pressured Gary Cohn, his former top economic adviser, to press the Justice Department to intervene on the merger.