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Article snippet: President Trump’s feud with CNN is casting a shadow over the Justice Department’s lawsuit to block AT&T from merging with Time Warner, the news outlet’s parent company. The Justice Department’s decision to bring a lawsuit against a vertical merger — a deal involving two companies that aren’t direct competitors — is a major shift in antitrust policy from previous administrations. To those who have been raising the alarm about corporate consolidation, the move is long overdue, and a sign that regulators in the Trump administration won't be a rubber stamp for such major deals. But AT&T and its supporters are suggesting the policy shift is being driven by something other than antitrust law — namely, Trump’s long-running feud with CNN, a network owned by Time Warner. "Frankly, I don’t know" if the White House interfered in the merger review, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in a press conference on Monday. "But nobody should be surprised that the question keeps coming up." Legal experts have suggested AT&T could use the discovery process in the antitrust lawsuit to seek evidence of political motivations in the merger decision. But others are skeptical that tactic would work. Jonathan Rubin, an antitrust attorney and partner at the law firm MoginRubin, said AT&T would have to answer regulators’ claims that the merger will hurt competitors and consumers. Making the case that Trump interfered in the decision may not sway a judge, he said. “As a matte... Link to the full article to read more