AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson lamented Friday his company’s hiring of President Donald Trump’s associate Michael Cohen to assist in lobbying matters.
BREAK: AT&T CEO: Hiring Michael Cohen was a mistake – pic.twitter.com/9F6aQraBew
— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) May 11, 2018
“To be clear, everything we did was done according to the law and entirely legitimate,” Stephenson wrote in a letter to staff. “But the fact is, our past association with Cohen was a serious misjudgment. In this instance, our Washington D.C. team’s vetting process clearly failed, and I take responsibility for that.”
The company also revealed that Cohen approached them about consulting opportunities to give insight into Trump’s thinking at the beginning of the administration. Cohen’s consulting transactions have come to light in recent days after revelations that he used the same bank account to accept consulting fees and wire money to pornstar Stormy Daniels.
Daniels attorney, Michael Avenatti, released a dossier riddled with errors earlier this week allegedly showing financial transactions by Cohen. These transactions included significant funds transferred from AT&T to Cohen for reported insight into the administration’s thinking on their proposed merger with Time Warner. (RELATED: Avenatti Accuses The Wrong Michael Cohens Of Making ‘Fraudulent’ Payments)