This place is turning into misinformation station and a haven for trolls.
There was no bribery. The wrong person was hired to consult and the person that hired him didn’t vet him properly.
Not a Trump supporter and a koolaid drinker but Christ on a cracker, this is outta hand with the amount of misinformation you people regurgitate.
Original poster is in serious damage control mode, and seems brainwashed.
Sorry, original poster is an idiot. It was a bribe, through and through. Cohen has no experience in telecom and probably couldn't even define net neutrality. Paying for influence is a bribe. Don't try and wordsmith your way out of what was really happening.
right, this is not about cohen, it s about those d---s from accenture screwing everyone and upper management just eats their sh-- like it is ice cream
To fix my previous post (@sll) I meant at the least unethical not at best.
This whole situation smells. It smells bad. Quinn didn’t retire he was forced out. You think $600k was all they paid? Remember at first it was $200k. You don’t have to be a kool-aide drinker to know what happened here was at best unethical. Cohen was not a registered lobbyist and likely was at the same meeting with Trump, Randall, and Quinn because their agreement was signed 11 DAYS after that meeting. Everyone’s focused on what implications if any it had on the merger. You’re looking at the wrong deal. Look at what happened with Net Neutrality.
Let me just say I am no fan of Randy's. His capital allocation decisions (T-Mobile Buy, Direct TV Buy, and the Mexico and South America Wireless Buys for example) have all been disasters and a very poor allocation of precious capital which is the main job of any CEO trying to grow a company. Having said that, I am sure that, since AT&T is a publicly traded company with a Board of Directors, there is certainly an independent internal investigation going on right now to see "who knew what when" and what the intent of this payment was. It is certainly possible that this was just good old fashion poor management, bad judgment,, and an attempt to understand the new regime in DC. It is also possible that there were other more troublesome motives for these payments. I prefer to wait for all of the fact to come in and then make an informed decision about this matter. Ultimately, Randy is responsible for the fallout that may or may not happen. But let's at least wait for the facts to come out before we rush to judgment on this matter. Granted, Randy should have been out based on his capital allocation decisions, but he should not be released based on this episode until the facts are in and we are sure of what has happened.
AT&T is the sh**hole of the wireless industry.
Guys AT&T spends millions of dollars above board on lobbyists, lawyers and even buying up legislators outright to do their bidding all legally and as public record but still they felt the need to spend $600k under the table to a slimeball “lawyer” with non of the above mentioned skills to get access to Trump but it’s not a bribe guys because no one knew about it until they did.
It’s no wonder AT&T is in the state it’s in when you have people so drunk on the kool-aid they defend slimeball Randall at every chance. From terrible purchase decisisons and merges to offshoring and layoffs and now possible federal crimes. Defend, defend, defend. You keep crying about your careers going the way of the dodo but you keep the one person around that guarantees your extinction.
Original poster is correct - There Was No Bribe, it was not influence peddling it was for information. Bad optics but nothing unusual or untoward.
Swamp Semantics - Welcome to T management 101
Lots of speculation here. Unless you live on 4th floor of Whitacare Tower in the C-Suite you do not know any details except for what the money hungry Stormy Daniels attorney has told everyone. Millions of dollars in the budget every year for Executive consulting services. And according to Mr. Cohen, he is the one that approached AT&T for his services so not like AT&T was out looking for an inside to Trump Administration, an opportunity presented itself and they took advantage of it along with some other companies who had things going on that the government could impact.
I don't believe this deal will have any impact on employee reductions, as those have been planned for several years, and that all happens according to feedback from Accenture Consulting, who does all the studies of employee productivity and effectiveness.
AT AT&T isn't against the code of conduct for employees to received 50 dollars?, and manager approval is required?
This isn't some nuanced stance on misinformation. Call it for wtf it is - a bribe.
If it wasn't a bribe, then why is randy so worried.
Money paid for influence. Semantics.