Former Obama Antitrust Cop Now Pushing AT&T's New Merger Senator Elizabeth Warren has taken aim at the revolving door regulators that once worked in government, but now will help AT&T push its $100 billion (including debt) acquisition of Time Warner. Warren this week specifically singled out Christine Varney, a lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore that used to be a former US Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division for the Obama Administration and an FTC commissioner for the Clinton Administration.

Now she's helping AT&T sell a merger that's already extremely unpopular among consumers and consumer advocates. “Americans have had it with regulators like Varney, who talk a good game about holding the bad guys accountable while counting down the days until they can collect a fat paycheck from the corporations they were supposed to regulate,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren told Fortune. "The revolving door is out of control. If we want to hold corporate lawbreakers accountable, we can’t ask their friends to do it." Consumer advocates worry AT&T's latest merger allows a company with an incredibly spotty history on privacy grow larger than ever. They're also concerned that this larger size will let AT&T make it more difficult than ever for streaming competitors to sign the licensing agreements they need to compete with AT&T, and its upcoming new DirecTV Now streaming service. Worries have also surfaced about AT&T using its usage caps as an anti-competitive weapon; penalizing smaller competitors while giving its own content cap exempt status. And while the FCC has promised to take a look at the negative, anti-competitive impact of usage caps and zero rating as part of an "informal information exercise," absolutely nothing has come of that inquiry. As a result, AT&T, Comcast and Verizon all exempt their content from usage caps while penalizing competitors like Netflix, Amazon, or smaller outfits. That said, an anonymous insider at AT&T throws a bit of a hissy fit at the rising outrage, telling Fortune the company simply hired her because she's good. “How about Time Warner hired [Varney] because she is the best fucking antitrust lawyer around,” says someone close to the AT&T-Time Warner deal. “Not because she worked at the Department of Justice five years ago." Good lawyer or not, not everybody's ethics and morals pivot on a dime, and it's absolutely undeniable that revolving door regulators have played a mammoth role in the cable and broadband industry's ongoing, often-unchecked dysfunction. Good lawyer or not, not everybody's ethics and morals pivot on a dime, and it's absolutely undeniable that revolving door regulators have played a mammoth role in the cable and broadband industry's ongoing, often-unchecked dysfunction.







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Most recommended from 14 comments

vanheve2

join:2005-12-16

Chicago, IL 19 recommendations vanheve2 Member This is written very poorly The first sentence make it sound like Warren is pushing the merger, which she is not. Varney is pushing the merger. Warren is criticizing Varney for doing so.



"Now she's helping AT&T sell a merger" should be "Now Varney is helping AT&T sell a merger"

Kett2000

Premium Member

join:2002-04-23

Lilburn, GA 17 recommendations Kett2000 Premium Member Amount deposited in her account by AT&T I wonder how much did she get? An offer that couldn't be refused? =) Kearnstd

Space Elf

Premium Member

join:2002-01-22

Mullica Hill, NJ 7 recommendations Kearnstd Premium Member in DC there is only one thing that is 100% honesty, Its that money talks. This is what regulators do and why nothing gets done in the US to stop corporations from getting bigger and stop them from eroding what little consumer protection laws we once had. When they quit they jump right on the lobbying train.



We really need to make anybody who serves as either an elected official or gets offered a chance to be one of our regulator types to sign a contract that prohibits them from holding stock in any industry even slightly related while in office. And then a 10 year cooldown from exit of office before they can legally work as a consultant or lobbyist to any industry they regulated while in office.



The private sector does the second part all the time for high ranking positions, its called a non compete clause.

Anon449f0

@netelligent.ca 3 recommendations Anon449f0 Anon Senator Warren a hypocrite If and when Senator Warren loses an election or retires, she will hop on the lobbying gravy train as fast as any other lawyer. Almost(and I said almost) all lawyers are amoral opportunists who care about no one but themselves and how much money they can make. I think that is one of the 1st things they beat in to their brains in law school.