AT&T: Hiring Michael Cohen

On October 22nd, 2016, AT&T agreed to buy Time Warner Inc.

Then candidate Donald Trump attacked the deal. At the time, he said, "As an example of the power structure I'm fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few."

As we know, Donald Trump won the election and became President Donald Trump.

Recently, news popped up about AT&T paying President Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for consulting advice.



Reuters recently had an article that had some interesting points:

1. Cohen approached AT&T.

2. AT&T agreed to pay him $50,000 a month on a 1 year contract for advice.

3. The person who broke the story was Stormy Daniel's attorney, Michael Avenatti.

If one didn't know that Stormy Daniel's lawyer broke the news, one would almost think this was a last desperate attempt by President Trump to sway the opinion of the judge.

4. Cohen approached other companies like Ford Motor and Novartis. Ford said no, Novartis said yes.

Now I'd say that another industry that probably felt like they needed to influence the president would be drugmakers, which Novartis is. The auto industry was probably also worried due to Trump's attack on cars being made in Mexico, but for some reason Ford said no. It is interesting that Cohen approached 3 companies that might have felt the need to buy the consulting services of someone who was close to the president.

5.  A nice little quote from the article is: AT&T’s head lobbyist, Bob Quinn, who oversaw the hiring of Cohen, is retiring, according to the memo. But two sources familiar with the situation said Quinn was forced to retire.

So someone has to take the fall. This whole arrangement does sound dirty, but Bob Quinn getting fired because it was considered a "big mistake" for something that had ended 4.5 months in the past also sounds like a PR move. Who wants to bet that in a year AT&T pays him for consulting services?

Did President Trump know anything about this? For now, I'd think no. Instead, I'd argue that this was someone who tried to get rich off of his association with the new president.

The Dallas News has this lovely headline:

AT&T wins ethics award — and three hours later the company gets tied to Michael Cohen’s money mess.

Funny.