

A month before Comcast's announcement of a $45B takeover of rival Time-Warner, Comcast's top lobbyist invited the US government's top antitrust regulators to share the company's VIP box at the Sochi Olympics.

A Freedom of Information Act request from Muckrock reveals that the regulators reluctantly declined, saying "it sounds like so much fun" but the pesky "rules folks" would frown on it.

The lawyer, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Renata Hesse, regrettably declined the invitation, placing the blame on those "rules folks." She cited the Department of Justice's "very restrictive" ethics rules, but tempered the blow by inviting Comcast VP Kathryn Zachem to dinner — a longstanding date the two had apparently not found the time to see through.



Comcast executives appear to share cozy relationships with regulators



(via /.)





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corruption,regulatory capture,ftc,telcoms,antitrust,corporatism