Dallas Morning News: Payments to Trump attorney Michael Cohen pull back curtain on AT&T’s political machine

Dallas Morning News: Payments to Trump attorney Michael Cohen pull back curtain on AT&T's political machine

Yosef Getachew of Common Cause, a Washington-based nonpartisan group that advocates for a more ethical and open government, called AT&T's payments "another example of the power of big money to gain access and influence in all layers of government." "The swamp is only getting swampier," he said, referring to Trump's vows to "drain the swamp" on the campaign trail. Getachew said that AT&T, a company in the highly regulated telecom industry, has many matters that come before government agencies or Congress. For example, the new Trump-appointed leadership of the FCC made the call to roll back net neutrality rules. And the Justice Department made the decision to file an antitrust lawsuit over the still-pending AT&T-Time Warner merger.  "When a company is getting regulated like that, they are looking for every possible angle to influence the process," he said. "They are going to find ways to pay big money to influence those outcomes."

Yosef Getachew of Common Cause, a Washington-based nonpartisan group that advocates for a more ethical and open government, called AT&T’s payments “another example of the power of big money to gain access and influence in all layers of government.”

“The swamp is only getting swampier,” he said, referring to Trump’s vows to “drain the swamp” on the campaign trail.

Getachew said that AT&T, a company in the highly regulated telecom industry, has many matters that come before government agencies or Congress. For example, the new Trump-appointed leadership of the FCC made the call to roll back net neutrality rules. And the Justice Department made the decision to file an antitrust lawsuit over the still-pending AT&T-Time Warner merger.

“When a company is getting regulated like that, they are looking for every possible angle to influence the process,” he said. “They are going to find ways to pay big money to influence those outcomes.”