No inquiries from Cohen, FCC states

AT&T Inc. turned to Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's lawyer, in the early days of the administration to find out how the new president would handle such issues as Net neutrality.

But Ajit Pai, Federal Communications Commission chairman, said Thursday that the agency never heard from him.

"No," the Republican replied when asked at a news conference about any inquiries made by Cohen on possible changes to commission requirements enacted during President Barack Obama's tenure that Internet services treat all Web content equally.

AT&T has acknowledged it hired a firm founded by Cohen, seeking "insights" on how the unorthodox candidate would govern as president after his 2016 upset win. Cohen was one of "several consultants" the Dallas-based telecom company hired for insight, according to an email sent to U.S. employees on Wednesday.

Their portfolios consisted of "a wide range of policy issues" such as antitrust, corporate tax reform, and "regulatory reform" at the FCC. The company didn't dispute the authenticity of the email.

In a statement released Wednesday night, AT&T said that it had been contacted "regarding Michael Cohen" by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, who's investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion by members of Trump's campaign. The company said it had "cooperated fully, providing all information requested in November and December of 2017."

Payments to Cohen from AT&T and Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG, among others, show how even companies with robust lobbying operations sought knowledgeable insiders to glean insight into Trump's Washington -- using backdoor channels that may not be illegal, but have now drawn the special counsel's scrutiny.

Novartis chief executive Vas Narasimhan told employees Thursday that the company "made a mistake" in signing up Cohen to give the company insight on Trump's health care plans. While Novartis got little from Cohen, the arrangement dragged Novartis into Mueller's investigation. The company said it was contacted by Mueller's office in November, though it now considers its role in that inquiry closed.

Pai moved to gut Obama-era Net neutrality rules in May 2017, with a final FCC vote taken in December. The rules require Internet service providers to treat Web content equally and forbid them from barring or slowing Web traffic. The lighter replacement rules, which compel Internet service providers to disclose their practices, are scheduled to take effect June 11.

The new rules are under challenge in the courts and by Congress.

Senate Democrats have vowed to force a vote, which could take place next week, to nullify the FCC gutting of the old Net neutrality rule. They're using a mechanism that lets Congress override agency actions, and say they have 50 votes, including one from a Republican. That may be enough for passage. The measure isn't likely to win a majority in the House, where Republicans hold a larger majority, or, if it did, be signed by Trump.

AT&T's arrangement with Cohen, which the company says involved no lobbying or legal work, also offers a peek behind the curtain at the vast political machinery the company employs when it has enormous business and policy stakes before the federal government, including a once-in-a-generation overhaul of the tax code, a repeal of Net neutrality rules and, most important, a fight with the Justice Department over its planned $108.7 billion Time Warner merger deal.

All of those issues have been met head-on in recent months by AT&T -- which is among the most active companies in America in spending millions on lobbying and political contributions to lawmakers of both parties.

AT&T's payments to Cohen were disclosed Tuesday by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stephanie Clifford, the porn actress known as Stormy Daniels who was paid $130,000 by Cohen's company to keep quiet about her alleged tryst with Trump.

The telecom giant made four payments totaling $200,000 between last October and January to Cohen's Essential Consulting, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. But a source told Reuters on Wednesday that AT&T had a yearlong contract with the company. A full-year contract for $50,000 per month would total $600,000.

Essential Consulting also received payments from other companies, including one linked to a Russian oligarch.

AT&T confirmed its payments to Cohen in a statement Tuesday. On Wednesday, it sent an email to all of its U.S. employees, saying it wanted them to "know the facts."

The company said it hired "several consultants to help us understand how the president and his administration might approach a wide range of policy issues important to the company, including regulatory reform at the (Federal Communications Commission), corporate tax reform and antitrust enforcement."

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.

Information for this article was contributed by Todd Shields and James Paton of Bloomberg News and by Tom Benning and Melissa Repko of The Dallas Morning News.

Business on 05/11/2018

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