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On May 6, 2017, AT&T's senior vice president and general

Jan. 21, 2017 by Ella Pickett

On May 6, 2017, AT&T's senior vice president and general counsel, John Deutch, and President of the AT&T Global Group, Eric Holder, filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit and to seek a new merger review by the DOJ. The DOJ said the DOJ should have known that AT&T would lose an already substantial portion of its online video business, and that the merger would create a huge market for its online video services. The DOJ argued that there was a substantial risk that AT&T would end up in a similar position at other media companies, and that it could seek to protect its online video business with its own litigation.

It's important to note that the DOJ's motion to dismiss the AT&T case is not a decision on whether to block AT&T from selling its online video business, nor on whether to prevent AT&T from using AT&T's services to sell online video. Rather, it's a decision on whether to block AT&T from using the internet to sell its online video business.

"By not blocking AT&T from using the internet to buy its services to sell online video, [the] Obama administration is undermining the constitutional rights to free speech," said Andrew K. Cohen, the ACLU's senior staff attorney in Washington, D.C.

The DOJ's decision is a sign of how far-reaching the DOJ's decision is.

The DOJ's motion to dismiss the AT&T case stems from the "failure to comply" of DOJ Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who reportedly "did not comply" with Trump's orders. He later told The New Yorker that he would not "interfere" with the review of the AT&T purchase, though, which could create a new antitrust lawsuit.

"The DOJ [requested] the DOJ to reconsider its decision and issue new guidance requiring the DOJ to make changes to its policies that would prevent and delay the AT&T acquisition [of Time Warner], and also force the DOJ to address antitrust matters in a more timely manner," wrote Cohen.