Rudy Giuliani appears to suggest Trump personally tried to kill the AT&T-Time Warner merger
- Rudy Giuliani, the newest member of President Donald Trump's legal team, appeared to suggest that Trump intervened in the Time Warner-AT&T merger currently under US Justice Department scrutiny.
- While making a point about Trump being unreceptive to lobbying efforts in an interview with HuffPost, Giuliani highlighted the proposed merger between Time Warner and AT&T, saying "He did drain the swamp ... The president denied the merger. They didn't get the result they wanted," Giuliani said according to HuffPost.
- It was not clear whether Giuliani was saying emphatically that Trump personally stepped in to kill the deal.
- The telecom giant and the government have been arguing their cases in court. The proposed $85 billion merger has also been a thorn in Trump's side. He has frequently criticized the deal.
President Donald Trump's newest attorney, Rudy Giuliani, appeared to suggest that Trump intervened in the Time Warner-AT&T merger currently under US Justice Department scrutiny.
In an interview with HuffPost published on Friday night, Giuliani asserted that Trump has been unreceptive to lobbying efforts and pointed to the Time Warner merger as an example. "He did drain the swamp ... The president denied the merger. They didn't get the result they wanted," Giuliani said according to HuffPost.
It was not immediately clear whether Giuliani was saying emphatically that Trump personally intervened to kill the $85 billion merger, but Trump has publicly expressed his disdain for it. On Friday, he seemed to respond to the HuffPost article, by railing against media outlets.
The telecom giant and the US government have been arguing their respective cases in court.
Giuliani's comments to HuffPost follow a number of unexpected admissions about Trump and his involvement in some of the scandals that have roiled his administration of late.
During his first round of TV interviews as Trump's lawyer earlier this month, Giuliani contradicted Trump's April 5 claim that he was unaware of the $130,000 nondisclosure agreement his personal attorney Michael Cohen arranged to pay the adult-film star, Stormy Daniels.
Giuliani told Fox News' Sean Hannity on May 2 that Trump knew about the deal and also reimbursed Cohen for as much as $470,000 afterward.