Lobbying

The ouster of AT&T's top lobbyist caught DC telecom insiders by surprise and underscored that even the most well-oiled Washington machine isn't immune to inadvertent entanglement with Trumpworld scandal. 

In another seeming flareup of his chronic foot-in-mouth disease, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani on May 11 told the Huffington Post that the president “denied the merger” sought by AT&T and Time-Warner.

The White House pushed back on concerns regarding newly-discovered payments to President Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen from corporations looking to lobby the White House, arguing that the episode proves the President will not cater to “special interests.” 

[Commentary] AT&T's hiring of Michael Cohen in January 2017 to advise the company on an $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner looked like a smart strategy. In retrospect, AT&T's contract with Cohen appears to have been a complete failure. In November 2017, 10 months after AT&T retained Cohen, the Justice Department sued to block the company's purchase of Time Warner, citing antitrust concerns. Whatever efforts Cohen made to grease the skids did not work. The only visible evidence of President Trump taking a friendlier posture toward AT&T during the period when the company p

Randall L. Stephenson, AT&T’s chief executive, said in a staffwide memo  that the company had made a “big mistake” by hiring President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Three days after President Donald Trump was sworn into office, AT&T turned to his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for help on a wide portfolio of issues pending before the federal government — including the company’s proposed merger with Time Warner.

Asked at a news conference if he or his staff had had any conversations with representatives from AT&T while the company was paying Michael Cohen for insights into the new administration, including reportedly on net neutrality, President Donald Trump’s lawyer, now-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said, "No." He later clarified that Michael Cohen had not come to him to open a door for AT&T. 

Democrats like to advocate for the distribution of wealth, and party politicos from the California Democratic Party joined their friends in Pebble Beach this weekend to spread lots of it. Along with AT&T—their corporate BFFs—Democratic politicos from around the state gathered with lobbyists, captains of industry and others for a schmooze-fest known as the Speaker’s Cup at Pebble Beach.

[Press release] The news reports that AT& T and Swiss-based drugmaker Novartis paid Michael Cohen, President Trumps personal lawyer, an estimated $1.8 million in 2017should set off alarm bells for the lobbying profession, Congress, and the American people. In 2005, it took the actions of one man, Jack Abramoff, for the American people and Congress to come down hard on the lobbying profession. There was legislation seeking to outright ban lobbyist activities to requiring that they report every move they made. Today however is a different story.

Michael Cohen made more than $2 million working as a Trump whisperer. But he's far from the only one. President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer and fixer is the latest member of the president's inner circle to cash in on connections by selling insight into how Trump operates. The president's 2016 victory rattled corporations enough that clients were eager to pay top dollar to anyone who could help them understand the administration in its first months. Many of those insiders have become lobbyists, joining established Washington firms or starting their own shops.