In what appears to be another contradiction of President Trump, Rudy Giuliani told the Huffington Post on Friday that Trump “denied” the proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen received $600,000 from AT&T to advise on the merger. Giuliani, who joined Trump’s legal defense team last month, told The Huffington Post that Trump had “no knowledge” of the payment and that “whatever lobbying was done didn’t reach the president.”
“The president denied the merger. They didn’t get the result they wanted,” Giuliani said, referring to AT&T.
In November, Trump said that he “didn’t make that decision,” referring to the one to stop the merger, and said Department of Justice antitrust chief Makan Delrahim was responsible.
But Trump had vowed during the 2016 election to stop the merger in his first 100 days in office, and has repeatedly expressed disdain for Time Warner’s CNN.
Representatives for AT&T, Time Warner, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from TheWrap.
Giuliani’s comments Friday come just over a week after he told Sean Hannity that Trump was fully aware of the $130,000 paid by Cohen to Stormy Daniels, in exchange for her silence about an affair she says she and Trump had several years earlier.
Giuliani quickly issued a statement to “clarify” that claim, saying on May 4: “My references to timing were not describing my understanding of the President’s knowledge, but instead, my understanding of these matters.”