- Trump and his aides tried to push AT&T’s CEO to sell CNN to Rupert Murdoch, a new book claims.
- AT&T’s CEO was “beyond pissed,” and executives described “almost mob-style extortion,” per the book.
- Peter Baker’s and Susan Glasser’s “The Divider,” IndependentThe upcoming release of, is scheduled to go on sale next week.
Former President Donald Trump and his aides repeatedly tried to persuade AT&T to sell CNN to Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch while also threatening to block the company’s merger with Time Warner, CNN’s parent company, according to a new book.
The revelation is based on a pre-release copy by Susan Glasser and Peter Baker of “The Divider.” The Independent obtained and reported.
The book said that Trump summoned Randall Stephenson, the chairman, and CEO of AT&T until 2020, to his office in Trump Tower shortly after winning the election in 2016.
During the meeting, Trump was said to have complained about Jeff Zucker, CNN’s boss, at the time. The book also stated that he claimed to have “got him” the role and called him a bad guy.
Stephenson, per the Independent’s reporting, left the meeting with the feeling that Trump posed a threat to the AT&T and Time Warner merger.
In the weeks following this interaction, AT&T controversially donated to Trump’s inaugural committee and paid Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer at the time, for his services as a consultant. AT&T was seeking government approval for its acquisition of Time Warner during this period.
Stephenson later His employees were sincerely sorryCohen is being paid Referring to the 2018 decisionAs a “bad error.”
The book claimed that Murdoch (the billionaire media mogul and founder Fox News) called Stephenson on May 17, 2017 to ask: “How’s this deal going?”
Per the Independent’s reporting on the book, Murdoch offered to buy CNN from AT&T and remarked that it “would help get the deal done.”
According to the book Stephenson stated that he wasn’t interested in selling CNN.
According to the book, Murdoch called once more three months later with another offer to purchase CNN. According to the Independent, it came after a White House dinner that Trump and Jared Kushner had attended with John Kelly, the former chief of staff at the White House.
Stephenson rejected the offer once more. According to an AT&T executive, per the book, Stephenson was “beyond pissed” by the calls and saw it as being part of an “outrageous abuse of power.”
The book said that AT&T viewed the calls as “an implicit quid pro quo” in which Trump would not push the government to block the merger with Time Warner if AT&T divested CNN to the owner of a competitor that had covered him sympathetically, per the Independent.
The book said AT&T executives viewed the calls as “almost mob-style extortion,” according to the Independent.
In November 2018, the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit over the AT&T acquisition. Richard J. Leon, a senior judge of the US District Court in Washington, ultimately ruled in favor of AT&T, allowing the acquisition to go ahead. They merged in June 2018.
