The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Merger advice part of Cohen's AT&T deal Internal documents showspecififics of $600,000 contract.
Three days after President Donald Trump was sworn into offiffice, the telecomgiant AT&T turned to his personal attorney Michael Cohen for help on a wide portfolio of issues pending before the federal government— including the company’s proposed merger with Time Warner, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
The internal documents reveal for the first time that Cohen’s $600,000 dealwith AT& T specif ifiedt ha the would provide advice on the $85billion merger, which required the approval of federal antitrust regulators.
Trump had voiced opposition to the merger during the campaignandhis administration ultimately sided against AT&T. The Department of Justice fifiled suit in November to block the deal, a case that is still pending.
Cohen’s deals with AT&T and other corporate clients were first revealed this week by an attorney for adult- fifilm star Stormy Daniels, but the new documents obtained by The Post offered greater detail abouthis arrangement with telecom company and the type ofwork he hadbeen hired to perform.
It is unclear what insight Cohen — a longtime real estate attorney and former taxi cab operator — could have provided AT&T oncomplex telecom matters.
At the same time he was collecting $50,000 a month from AT&T, Cohenwas being
paid large sums to advise other companies on a broad variety of issues, including the Affordable Care Act, accounting practices and real estate.
In the wake of Trump’s election, corporate clients paid Cohen at least $2.95 million through a company called Essential Consultants, according to figures confifirmed by the companies.
Essential Consultantswas the same company Cohen usedinOctober 2016to route money to Daniel sin exchange for her agreement not to disclose an alleged affffffffffffair with Trump.
The corporate payments he received demonstrate how Cohen was able to turn his ties with the new president into money-making opportunities, despite Trump’ s campaign pl edges to“drain the swamp.”
AT&T and the pharmaceutical company Novartis, another Cohen client, said this week that they provided information about their dealings with Trump’s lawyer to special counsel Robert Mueller III last year. Cohen
is also under investigation by prosecutors in NewYork for possible bank fraud and campaign fifinance violations.
A“scope ofwork” describing Cohen’s contract in an internal AT&T document shows that he was hired to “focus on specifific long-term planning initiatives as well as the immediate issue of corporate tax reform and the acquisitionof TimeWarner.”
He was also directed to “creatively address political and communications issues” facing the company and advise the company on matters before the Federal Communications Commission.
AT& T declined to comment on the documents, which were provided to The Post anonymously, but did not challenge their authenticity.
The internal AT&T documents showthat Cohen was supposedto spendhalf of his time on “legislative policy development” and the other half on “regulatory policy development.” Payments to Cohen were approved by two executives in AT&T’s public a ff ff ff ff f ff fairs offiffice in Washington.