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Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse
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The Justice Department has called on AT&T and Time Warner to sell Turner Broadcasting, the group of cable channels that includes CNN, as a potential requirement for approving the companies’ pending $85.4 billion deal, people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.
The other potential way the merger could win approval would be for AT&T to sell its DirecTV division, two of these people added.
The demands set up a potential battle over the fate of the long-in-the-works deal that would create a new colossus straddling the worlds of media and telecommunications at a time when upstarts like Netflix are disrupting traditional players in both industries.
As originally envisioned, combining AT&T and Time Warner would yield a giant company offering wireless and broadband internet service, DirecTV, the Warner Brothers movie studio and cable channels like HBO and CNN.
If the Justice Department formally makes either demand a requisite for approval, AT&T and Time Warner would almost certainly take the matter to court to challenge the government’s legal basis for blocking their deal.
Federal prosecutors are looking into the role played by Carl C. Icahn, the billionaire investor, in advising the Trump administration on regulatory issues that had the potential to affect the finances of a company he owns.
Mr. Icahn stepped down as an unpaid adviser to President Trump in August, after scrutiny from members of Congress about whether he was influencing regulations on ethanol to benefit his financial investments.
One of Mr. Icahn’s main investment companies, Icahn Enterprises, disclosed in a regulatory filing on Friday that federal prosecutors in Manhattan had served a subpoena seeking information about “Mr. Icahn’s activities relating to the renewable fuels standard and Mr. Icahn’s role as an adviser to the president.” The filing said Icahn Enterprises was cooperating with the prosecutors’ demand for information.
When Mr. Icahn took on the advisory position this year, critics complained that it was a conflict of interest because he owns a big stake in an oil-refinery business called CVR Energy. Indeed, The New York Times reported in March that Mr. Icahn was pressing for a change in a requirement that refiners be held responsible for ensuring that corn-based ethanol is mixed into gasoline.
The Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees that renewable fuels standard, ultimately decided not to make changes that might have benefited CVR and other small refiners.
Mr. Icahn could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
COMMERCE SECRETARY WILBUR Ross recently promoted his own agency ethics official, whose job it is to monitor department-wide conduct for ethical lapses. The promotion came just before Ross received scrutiny about his investment in the shipping company Navigator Holdings, which has business ties to Russian oligarchs and members of the Putin family.
The story played in the mainstream press as evidence of further Trump administration ties to Russia, but any billionaire with vast holdings and an interest in the energy industry is likely to have rubbed up against a few oligarchs and Putin cronies. More to the point, Ross’s story is one of an unchecked conflict of interest.
Ross has leaned on the judgments of the Commerce Department’s ethics official, David Maggi, to clear his name after the recent Paradise Papers revelations. Ross explained repeatedly to the media that he publicly disclosed the investment and was cleared to retain the stake by Maggi. Then, his office argued that Ross cannot financially benefit Navigator, because he recuses himself from all matters involving transoceanic shipping vessels, as spokesperson James Rockas told the New York Timesand NBC News.
But Maggi was elevated from an alternate designated ethics official to the permanent position sometime after September 5, according to records with the Office of Government Ethics. That means that, after Maggi accepted Ross’s ethics agreement and allowed him to maintain the shipping investment, Ross — who controls hiring for the position — rewarded him with a promotion.
Neither of Ross’s defenses against the charge of corruption hold up under the kind of scrutiny that an independent ethics officer is expected to apply. In the wake of the release of the Paradise Papers, Ross on Tuesday decided to divest the holding, an indication of just how wrong Maggi’s judgment was. The Navigator “disclosure” was buried inside a vaguely named holding company and unknown to the Senate committee who vetted Ross. As for recusal, in May, the commerce secretary personally negotiated a deal to facilitate the transport of American liquefied natural gas, or LNG, to China. Ross touted the deal on CNBC, saying it would open the lucrative Chinese LNG market to American producers and “liberate American energy.” He has cited LNG as a way to reduce America’s trade deficit.
Using some of his strongest language against North Korea yet, Donald Trump told the hermit state he would “not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction. We will not be intimidated”.
He claimed people in North Korea were suffering human rights abuses in “gulags” and some bribed government officials to work as "slaves" overseas rather than live under Kim Jong-un’s rule.
In a fiery response, North Korea’s state media agency KCNA said: "The world is undergoing unprecedented throes because of Trump, a notorious 'political heretic'.
"The US must oust the lunatic old man from power and withdraw the hostile policy towards the DPRK at once in order to get rid of the abyss of doom.
“The US had better make a decisive choice…if it does not want a horrible nuclear disaster and tragic doom."
WASHINGTON — On Sunday, thanks to a consortium of investigative journalists, the public learned that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross never fully divested himself of ownership in a big global shipping company — one with ties to Russia’s rulers — when he joined President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
But new reporting by NBC News shows that Ross’ potential conflicts of interest go even further. The shipping company’s own documents suggest that Ross’ company may benefit from an important initiative that he has led as commerce secretary: securing a trade agreement with China to increase U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The shipping company in which Ross still has a 31 percent stake, Navigator Holdings, exports a different energy product, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). But Navigator’s own statements, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, say that when there’s a global expansion in LNG production facilities, that benefits the trade in LPG. That in turn could help Navigator’s bottom line, and thus Ross himself.
master.on
New Member
Opposing CNN sale for AT&T deal
is like a prostitute playing hard to get.
Report: DOJ demands CNN sale before AT&T, Time Warner deal is approved
is like a prostitute playing hard to get.
Report: DOJ demands CNN sale before AT&T, Time Warner deal is approved
master.on
New Member
At least Trump is trying to get Asians build factories in America.
Sure, Jap pres was changing subjects when asked
but 20 Chinese deals net $9 billion were agreed. Details will be released next Thursday.
US, Chinese firms sign 20 deals worth $9 billion during Donald Trump’s visit
Trump's $250 billion China deals: These are the companies behind them
Compare this to Hillary
she would have increased asian tax exemptions in America without they even asking.
What's not to like about a US dealmaker-in-chief?
So how is Trump endangering America in any way?
Sure, Jap pres was changing subjects when asked
but 20 Chinese deals net $9 billion were agreed. Details will be released next Thursday.
US, Chinese firms sign 20 deals worth $9 billion during Donald Trump’s visit
Trump's $250 billion China deals: These are the companies behind them
Compare this to Hillary
she would have increased asian tax exemptions in America without they even asking.
What's not to like about a US dealmaker-in-chief?
So how is Trump endangering America in any way?
