Sessions will not answer if White House asked about AT&T Time Warner merger

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions declined on Tuesday to answer if any White House officials contacted the Justice Department to discuss the government's review of AT&T Inc's proposed $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc .

Sessions would not answer a question at a U.S. House hearing about if the White House had any communications about the deal. President Donald Trump as a candidate had vowed not to approve the merger and has repeatedly criticized Time Warner's CNN network. Reuters reported the Justice Department demanded last week that AT&T divest DirecTV or the Turner Broadcasting unit in order to win approval.

 

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Sarah Lynch; Editing by Chris Reese)