Alicia Cohn

The Justice Department (DOJ) acknowledged that while President Donald Trump doesn’t like CNN, his unhappiness with the media outlet did not influence a federal antitrust case. “The president is unhappy with CNN. We don’t dispute that,” Justice Department lawyer Craig Conrath said at a pretrial hearing. “But AT&T wants to turn that into a get-out-jail-free card for their illegal merger.” The DOJ is trying to prevent the political argument from becoming part of the case. He also argued that CNN is not key to the government's opposition of the deal.