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US: House Democrats want to subpoena DOJ on AT&T

By  |  March 4, 2018

Two high-ranking democrats have stated that the chair of the House of Representatives’ oversight committee should force the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division to turn over information about its decision to challenge AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, especially any communications with President Donald Trump.

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    Representative Elijah Cummings (Democrat, Maryland) is concerned that President Trump may have influenced the DOJ to sue to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger and has teamed with a fellow House Democrat to ask the Republicans in power to compel the DOJ to produce documents relevant to its White House interactions.

    Cummings, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, has teamed with Gerry Connolly (Democrat, Virginia), ranking member of the Government Operations Subcommittee, to ask Oversight Committee chair Trey Gowdy (Republican-South Carolina) to subpoena the DOJ, triggered by a number of actions.

    Cummings also cited Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s refusal to answer questions about whether he had discussed the merger with the White House. Sessions deferred, saying, “I am not able to comment on conversations or communications that Department of Justice top people have with top people at the White House.”

    Cummings and Connolly asked that if Gowdy decided not to issue this subpoena himself, he place this matter on the agenda for the Committee’s next regularly scheduled business meeting so all Committee members will have the opportunity to vote on a motion to subpoena these documents.

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