Rudy Giuliani, the newest member of President Donald Trump’s legal team, has once again found himself in a sticky situation over comments made to the media about his boss.
On Saturday, Giuliani found himself backtracking comments he made to the Huffington Post[1] late Friday, which implied that Trump tried to kill the planned tie-up between AT&T Inc. T, +1.29%[2] and Time Warner Inc. TWX, +1.37%[3]
But in a CNN interview[4] on Saturday, Giuliani said Trump told him “directly he didn’t interfere.” The government sued last year to block that deal, but officials have said Trump had no involvement in the matter.
“The Justice Department denied the deal,” press secretary Sarah Sanders told CNN Saturday morning, repeating the White House’s past position on the matter.
Guiliani‘s Friday night comments created somewhat of a furor as they implied that Trump indeed blocked[5] AT&T’s bid for Time Warner Inc. TWX, +1.37%[6] . It comes amid a backlash over the disclosure of payments to Trump’s personal lawyer[7], Michael Cohen, by AT&T to advise on that pending acquisition.
AT&T has said that its hiring of Cohen was a “big mistake,” but nothing illegal. However, it also announced the retirement of head lobbyist Bob Quinn, who oversaw the hiring of that lawyer. The reports of the involvement of AT&T, along with Swiss drugmaker Novartis Inc. NOVN, +0.96%[8] with Cohen stemmed from financial information released in a report[9] by a lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels.
Read: AT&T CEO may feel hiring Cohen was ‘big mistake,’ but market doesn’t judge Time Warner deal as any less likely[10]
Plus: AT&T, foreign corporations risk legal action for payments to Michael Cohen firm[11]
Trump on Friday tweeted that his administration’s antitrust division has never been in favor of the AT&T bid for Time Warner:
Why doesn’t...