The US District Court for Washington DC has rejected AT&T’s request for documents relating to communication between the Justice Department and President Donald Trump. The company, which is fighting to get a green light for its proposed acquisition of Time Warner, made allegations that the DoJ and President Trump were blocking the deal because CNN had “engaged in political speech disfavoured by President Trump” and that there was in general a “selective enforcement of the antitrust laws”. It had asked for access to communication documents to back its accusations.
The court ruled that there was no “untoward” communications between the White House and the Antitrust Division. Also, the company itself failed to provide enough evidence for its selective enforcement defense. AT&T only cited Comcast’s 2011 acquisition of NBC Universal as a comparison point for its allegations and the court has found this not relevant. The Justice Department has already given AT&T a log of communications between the White House and the antitrust division. AT&T was requesting the actual emails.
AT&T requested the communications as part of its defense against a lawsuit aimed at blocking its USD 85 billion merger of Time Warner. The trial is expected to start in March. The ruling is a blow to AT&T’s defense. "We respect the judge's decision and look forward to the upcoming trial," the lead trial attorney for both Time Warner and AT&T said in a statement to Cnet.
AT&T has said its merger would not result in higher prices for consumers and that the deal was essential to keep AT&T competitive in an evolving market. Consumer advocacy groups, such as Public Knowledge, agree with the Justice Department, saying the merger would be bad for consumers.
