Court Urged to Review AT&T Ruling -- WSJ
March 10 2018 - 2:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Drew FitzGerald
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (March 10, 2018).
WASHINGTON -- A group of former Justice Department officials has
asked a judge to revisit questions about whether the White House
interfered in the government's lawsuit challenging AT&T Inc.'s
proposed acquisition of Time Warner Inc.
The officials, including former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and
Nixon-era Justice Department and White House lawyer John W. Dean,
filed a friend-of-the-court brief late Thursday in which they
argued the case was clouded by a perception that the department
filed the lawsuit at President Donald Trump's request to punish
Time Warner channel CNN. Mr. Trump has criticized the network's
coverage of his administration as unfair.
"Public confidence in the rule of law demands a full inquiry, if
for no other reason than to ensure the public that the department
continues to adhere to its obligation of ensuring the fair and
impartial administration of justice for all Americans," the former
officials wrote in their brief.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., is
scheduled to open trial proceedings in the case on March 19. The
judge didn't immediately rule on whether he would allow the former
officials' brief to be submitted officially in the case.
The government said in a filing Friday that the brief "does not
appear meaningfully to add to unresolved issues in the upcoming
trial," though the department stopped short of opposing it.
The brief comes at an unusual time because Judge Leon already
issued a ruling last month that undercut AT&T's plans to argue
that the case was politically motivated. The judge said the
companies hadn't shown that they had been "especially singled out"
by the lawsuit and he said they couldn't have access to certain
internal government communications.
The Justice Department's antitrust division sued to stop the $85
billion takeover in November, arguing the media-telecom tie-up
would hurt competition in the entertainment business.
AT&T, which has questioned the department's motives, says
the deal would be good for consumers and advertisers and would help
it compete with companies like Netflix Inc., Google and Amazon.com
Inc.
Makan Delrahim, the Justice Department's antitrust chief, has
said he didn't receive instructions or directions from Mr. Trump or
anyone else outside the department's antitrust division on whether
to challenge the deal.
The former Justice officials said the government's lawsuit would
raise serious constitutional concerns if it were motivated by Mr.
Trump's CNN animus. The president can set overall law-enforcement
priorities, but the Constitution limits him from intervening in
specific enforcement cases, they said.
Mr. Trump last year fired Mr. Bharara from his powerful post as
U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York after he
refused to resign. Mr. Dean served as White House counsel to
President Richard Nixon before later testifying against him in the
Watergate affair.
Both Messrs. Bharara and Dean are now paid commentators for CNN,
though they said they weren't arguing in that capacity.
--Brent Kendall contributed to this article.
Write to Drew FitzGerald at andrew.fitzgerald@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 10, 2018 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
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