AT & T telecom operator admitted Friday that it made "a big mistake" by hiring Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's lawyer, to help him in an open investigation into his merger with the Time Warner media group .
He made his mea culpa . AT & T telecom operator admitted Friday that it made "a big mistake" by hiring Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's lawyer, to help him in an open investigation into his merger with the Time Warner media group . "Our company has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons in recent days and our reputation has suffered, there is no other way to say it, but hiring Michael Cohen as a political consultant has been a big mistake"said Group CEO Randall Stephenson in a letter to his employees, which AFP obtained a copy. AT & T acknowledged Tuesday that it had paid money to a consulting firm founded by Michael Cohen, the US president's personal attorney, which is under federal investigation.
Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for porn actress Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with President Donald Trump in 2006, had published a list of entities and companies that had used the services of Mr. Cohen of which , besides AT & T, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis and a Russian oligarch. "Everything we did was legal and legitimate," says Stephenson in his letter, but "our collaboration with Mr. Cohen is a serious misjudgment . " The CEO says AT & T's legal affairs manager, Bob Quinn, is going to "retire," but according to several US media he has been fired.
What about the merger with Time Warner?
AT&T affronte l'opposition de l'administration Trump pour sa fusion avec Time Warner (HBO, studios Warner Bros, chaîne de télévision CNN...). Le ministère de la Justice a intenté un procès, alors que les deux entreprises ne sont pourtant pas directement concurrentes, qui vient de se terminer et dont le verdict est attendu pour le 12 juin. Lors de la campagne électorale, Donald Trump avait indiqué que son administration s'opposerait, s'il était élu, à ce mariage, une position que de nombreux experts ont attribué à son bras de fer permanent avec CNN qu'il a rebaptisée "Fake News" (Fausse information). AT&T a indiqué vendredi que le contrat conclu avec M. Cohen portait sur un an, de janvier à décembre 2017, pour 50.000 dollars par mois.
"Our contract with Mr. Cohen was expressly limited to the provision of advice and advice and did not allow him to lobby for us (which has never happened). organize meetings with officials of the administration and it did not offer to do it " , specifies a document accompanying the letter to the employees. Essential Consultants is a consulting firm that was created in October 2016 by Michael Cohen. It was through him that Mr. Cohen paid Stormy Daniels $ 130,000 in exchange for his silence on his alleged affair with Donald Trump.
(with AFP)