AT&T has admitted that they were wrong to seek out the advice of Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer. According to The Washington Post, CEO Randall Stephenson announced that “hiring Michael Cohen as a political consultant was a big mistake.” He took full responsibility for AT&T’s failure “to fully vet Cohen before hiring him.”
BREAK: AT&T CEO: Hiring Michael Cohen was a mistake – pic.twitter.com/9F6aQraBew
— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) May 11, 2018
Politico also says that AT&T’s senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs, Bob Quinn, will retire in the wake of this scandal. General council David McAtee will replace him “for the foreseeable future.”
AT&T’s CEO tells staff that hiring Michael Cohen was “big mistake.”
“The fact is, our past association with Cohen was a serious misjudgment. In this instance, our Washington D.C. team's vetting process clearly failed, and I take responsibility for that.”https://t.co/bZ471N9SBN
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 11, 2018
AT&T wanted to merge with Time Warner Cable, a move Donald Trump has fiercely opposed. The phone company had paid Cohen $600,000 (up from the previously reported $200,000) for his advice on how to get government approval. They have since had to deal with the Justice Department’s objections.
Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, also admitted that hiring Cohen for consulting was a “big mistake.” They had paid Cohen $1.2 million for advice on health-care policy work.
WaPo has put out the actual Michael Cohen-AT&T agreement docs. Worth taking a look at https://t.co/Eol0hR0gjS pic.twitter.com/9oBZsM1Jfe
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 11, 2018
BREAKING: AT&T CEO's memo to employees:
"There is no other way to say it – AT&T hiring Michael Cohen as a political consultant was a BIG MISTAKE."
Wrong, dropping your grandmom's cookie bowl is a MISTAKE, this is a CRIME!
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) May 11, 2018