AT&T might have wanted the records to see if there was evidence that President Trump discussed the proposed merger with government lawyers, according to a Reuters report. From there, the telecom may have argued that politics played a role in the DOJ's decision to block the merger.

The DOJ sued to block the merger out of antitrust concerns. While AT&T planned to dodge regulatory scrutiny by selling off some of Time Warner's FCC licenses, and eventually plotted more drastic measures to dump other assets like CNN that appeared to jeopardize the merger. But the DOJ went ahead with a suit that argued the combined companies' media properties would mean higher prices for rival television and online content companies.