Earlier press accounts that AT&T paid $200,000 to President Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen for “consulting work” was actually closer to $600,000, according to a source talking to Reuters on Wednesday.

AT&T acknowledged on Tuesday it paid $200,000 to Cohen-owned Essential Consultants, a limited liability shell company, claiming it was to help the telecom company gain “insights” into the Trump Administration at the same time it was lobbying to win federal approval of its merger with Time Warner, Inc., and was seeking regulatory favors on issues including net neutrality, broadband regulation, pole attachment fees, municipal broadband, and decommissioning its rural landline network.

The first revelations about AT&T’s payment to the same company used to pay $130,000 in hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels came from her attorney, Michael Avenatti, who released detailed information about payments from AT&T, a pharmaceutical company, and a firm with direct ties to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, a close confidante of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Reuters reports it was unclear how Avenatti knew about those payments, but his information was detailed and partly confirmed by AT&T, noting payments of $50,000 in October-December, 2017 and one additional payment in January, 2018 of $50,000 — totaling $200,000.

Cohen

However, the contract was for a year, the source told Reuters, meaning AT&T likely paid more than $200,000 to Cohen’s company. A full year contract for $50,000 per month would total $600,000. The source declined to give a total for the payments made by AT&T to Cohen’s company.

It is not known what happened to the money AT&T paid Cohen, but there is speculation the president could have known about the payments and seen them as a goodwill gesture as AT&T battles with the Administration’s Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission over its $85 billion merger deal and accusations it speed-throttled wireless customers who exceeded an arbitrary usage allowance.

AT&T today released a company-wide letter to employees explaining its position on the matter:

From: T Now
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2018 12:10 PM
Subject: Perspective on the news

To: All U.S. AT&T employees

Late yesterday, many media outlets reported that in 2017, AT&T hired Michael Cohen, a former lawyer with the Trump Organization. We want you to know the facts.

In early 2017, as President Trump was taking office, we hired several consultants to help us understand how the President and his administration might approach a wide range of policy issues important to the company, including regulatory reform at the FCC, corporate tax reform and antitrust enforcement. Companies often hire consultants for these purposes, especially at the beginning of a new Presidential Administration, and we have done so in previous Administrations, as well.

Cohen was one of those consultants. Cohen did no legal or lobbying work for us, and our contract with Cohen expired at the end of its term in December 2017. It was not until the following month in January 2018 that the media first reported, and AT&T first became aware of, the current controversy surrounding Cohen.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said at a press conference that the Judiciary Committee should review the payments AT&T and other companies made to Cohen.

Blumenthal speculated those payments “may well have been used to influence the president of the United States, using Michael Cohen and his shell company as a conduit.”

Schneiderman

New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman resigned late Monday after four women accused him of physical abuse, causing a political earthquake in Albany and potentially stalling several important telecommunications-related cases that were championed by the Democrat.

The New Yorker magazine published an article late Monday with the accounts of the four women who said Schneiderman subjected them to non-consensual physical violence during romantic encounters.

Schneiderman issued several statements denying he assaulted anyone or took part in non-consensual sex. His resignation announcement said the allegations will effectively prevent him from carrying out his office’s work.

He had been a vocal proponent of the #MeToo movement against sexual assault and harassment, including filing a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein, one of the many high-profile men in politics, entertainment and business accused of assaulting women.

Schneiderman was also one of the country’s strongest advocates of holding telecom companies to their agreements. He was actively involved in pursuing the state’s dominant cable company, Charter Communications, for allegedly selling internet speeds his office claimed the company knew it could not deliver, and was more recently investigating Charter for its failure to adequately expand its rural service area to comply with the 2016 merger agreement between Charter, Time Warner Cable and the state’s Public Service Commission.

Schneiderman was elected in 2010 on a platform of pursuing equal justice for all New Yorkers. His website noted, “As the highest ranking law enforcement officer for the State, Schneiderman believes there has to be one set of rules for everyone, no matter how rich or powerful.”

On Tuesday, the governor announced New York Solicitor Barbara Underwood, also a Democrat, has stepped in to serve as acting attorney general.

Underwood, 73, has been the state Solicitor General since 2007 when she was appointed by then Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Schneiderman left her in place after he won election to the attorney general position in 2010. Underwood has no record of being a political advocate and has no intention to run for the position in the fall elections, making her largely a caretaker of the office. Her role has traditionally been to represent the state in appeals cases.

Underwood

Her lack of political intention was cited by Gov. Cuomo in his remarks introducing her as Schneiderman’s replacement.

Traditionally, caretaker heads of the Attorney General’s office continue existing cases and rely heavily on staff attorneys and their supervisors to continue litigation. But few observers expect Underwood will break ground on new cases or attempt to shift priorities in the office. Because the next scheduled election for New York’s attorney general is this year, most anticipate Underwood will keep a low profile until the election or the legislature replaces her. Had the governor appointed an acting attorney general with political ambitions, most would have expected an active summer and fall of high profile cases to build a list of accomplishments to promote in the fall campaign.

The last Republican to hold the position, Dennis Vacco (1995-1998), told the press the sudden opening of the office could spark considerable interest among Democrats and Republicans. The Attorney General slot has recently proved to be an important position for anyone considering a run for governor in New York. Both Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo served in this position before being elected to the governor’s office.

Vacco told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle he expects few changes in the office if Underwood remains a caretaker until the next election.

James

“If she is not a candidate for election, I think that she will be much more status quo-oriented,” he said.

But if the state legislature moves to appoint an interim replacement, the individual chosen will very likely have a political interest in winning the office at the next election opportunity. Vacco said that individual may want to put her or his own imprimatur on the office operations, which means the cases pursued in the future will not likely be the same as those chased by Schneiderman. The idea is “put[ting] distance between yourself and Schneiderman.”

There are multiple Democrats actively considering or who have been mentioned as possible candidates for the position this week:

NY City Public Advocate Letitia James: Favored by Gov. Cuomo, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, James is no pushover for cable companies. James has led the charge against Charter Communications’ performance in Manhattan and has held Verizon’s feet to the fire over their slow deployment of FiOS in New York’s largest city.

Former Manhattan U.S. attorney Preet Bharara: Has the support of several prominent admirers in New York and Washington, D.C. His indefatigable prosecution of public corruption cases has him feared in some circles and admired in others. He is also a fierce critic of the president. Consumer groups are uncertain what types of cases would get his attention if he were to win the position.

Rep. Kathleen Rice, the former Nassau County district attorney is actively mentioned as a candidate, as is Queens state Sen. Michael Gianaris, and former gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout. Teachout has been actively involved in promoting broadband issues including net neutrality. Another person who has been approached by Democratic officials to weigh a possible run is Ben Lawsky, the former superintendent of the state Department of Financial Services and a former federal prosecutor in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office.

Among members of the state legislature, who could quickly appoint a replacement until the fall election, James appears to be the current leading candidate. James would be New York’s first African-American attorney general, and would represent another instance of a female replacing a disgraced male official. She declined comment about her interest in the position.

On the Republican side, lawyer Manny Alicandro is running for the nomination for attorney general. His candidacy is likely to be challenging, given the Democratic enrollment advantage in New York and a mid-term election likely to drive more Democrats to the polls.

(Reuters) – U.S. cable operator Comcast Corp is asking investment banks to increase a bridge financing facility by as much as $60 billion so it can make an all-cash offer for the media assets that Twenty-First Century Fox Inc has agreed to sell to Walt Disney Co for $52 billion, three people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts only plans to proceed with the bid if a federal judge allows AT&T Inc’s planned $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc to proceed, the sources said. The U.S. Department of Justice has opposed the AT&T-Time Warner deal over antitrust concerns, and a decision from U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon is expected in June.

Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger clinched an all-stock deal with Fox Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch in December to acquire Fox’s film, television and international businesses, giving the world’s largest entertainment company an arsenal of shows and movies to combat growing digital rivals Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc.

Comcast, owner of NBC and Universal Pictures, has also made a 22 billion pound ($30 billion) offer to acquire the 61 percent stake in European pay-TV group Sky Plc that Fox does not already own. In doing so, it topped an earlier offer for the entirety of Sky by Fox.

Last November, Comcast offered to acquire most of Fox’s assets in an all-stock deal valued at $34.41 per share, or $64 billion, a regulatory filing showed last month. Like Disney, Comcast sought to buy Fox’s entertainment networks, movie studios, television production and international assets, the filing shows.

Fox ended up announcing an all-stock deal with Disney for $29.54 per share. In the regulatory filing, Disney and Fox cited regulatory hurdles as reasons to reject Comcast’s bid, even though they did not reference it by name.

The exact value of Comcast’s new bid for the Fox assets is not yet clear, although the $60 billion in new financing indicates it is seeking significant firepower to outbid Disney. Comcast already has a $30 billion bridge loan to finance its Sky offer.

The sources asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Comcast, Fox and Disney declined to comment.

Fox shares rose 5.13 percent to $39.99 on the news in after-hours trading in New York on Monday. Comcast shares were down 1.5 percent to $31.90, while Disney shares were down 0.5 percent to $102.00.

Murdoch, who owns close to a 17 percent stake in Fox and holds about 40 percent of the voting power, prefers to be paid in stock rather than cash for the Fox assets, because this makes the transaction non-taxable for shareholders, sources have said. It is not clear how receptive he would be to an all-cash offer.

Last month’s regulatory filing also showed that Fox viewed Disney’s stock as more valuable than Comcast’s, based on historic prices, and felt that a deal between Disney and Fox would generate greater long-term value. The Roberts family controls Comcast through a dual-class stock structure.

Comcast’s stock has dropped since then, from around $38 to about $32 now, giving the company a market capitalization of $149 billion.

Disney has committed to share buybacks as a way of returning cash to Fox shareholders. As a result, Comcast sees an opening in being disruptive to the deal by making an all-cash bid, according to the sources.

In its deal with Disney, Fox agreed to separate the Fox Broadcasting network and stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, its sports channels FS1, FS2 and the Big Ten Network, into a newly listed company that it will spin off to its shareholders.

Reporting by: Greg Roumeliotis and Liana B. Baker in New York; Additional reporting by Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Lisa Shumaker

Altice, which operates Cablevision’s Optimum brand cable service in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, has informed regulators of a broad-based “rate event” that will take effect on June 1, 2018. Unless a customer is currently enrolled in a price-locked promotion, these new rates generally affect all customers, except as noted.

Altice told Connecticut regulators the rate changes “reflect the rising cost of programming and our significant investment in the customer experience. Optimum pricing is competitive when compared with other providers, and the Company continues to offer a wide array of products to meet all consumer needs and budgets.”

Altice has told Wall Street a different story, noting it is prioritizing a reduction of the company’s massive debts that came from aggressive acquisitions of other cable systems. Altice also told investors in February Altice USA will distribute a special cash dividend to shareholders of $1.5 billion to celebrate Altice USA’s split from its Netherlands-based parent company Altice NV. The company also told shareholders it was happy with its latest profitable results, showing Altice’s residential business growing to just over 80% of total revenue, up 2.9% in 2017 and 1.8% in the fourth quarter of 2017. Business services is growing in mid single digits.

Altice also plans to continue increasing marketing on its advanced all-in-one-box solution — Altice One, which costs $25 a month.

Changes effective June 1, 2018:

• Set-Top Box: For customers who elect to receive a traditional set-top box from Optimum, the monthly rate will increase from $10.00 to $11.00. Does not apply to existing commercial customers.

• CableCARD: For customers who request a CableCARD from Optimum, the monthly rate will increase from $2.00 to $2.50.

• Sports Surcharge: To partially cover the continually increasing costs that programmers charge Altice to carry sports, the Sports Surcharge will increase from $6.97 to $7.97, for customers subscribing to the Optimum Core or higher tiers. (Broadcast Basic & Economy customers are not charged the Sports Surcharge.)

• Broadcast TV Surcharge: New residential Broadcast Basic and above customers currently pay a $3.99 monthly “Broadcast TV Surcharge” to partially offset the high costs that broadcasters charge. This fee will increase to $4.99 a month and will also be applied to existing Broadcast Basic residential customers and new commercial customers.

• Broadcast Basic Tier: New residential customers currently pay $19.99 per month for Broadcast Basic. To align basic tier rates, this same rate will apply to existing residential Broadcast Basic customers currently paying a monthly rate over $13.95. As an accommodation to existing Basic Tier customers currently paying $13.95/month, the new monthly Basic rate will be $14.95.

• Sports and Entertainment Package: This a la carte subscription will increase from $8.95 to $10.00.

• Residential Service Protection Plan: In addition to the free 24/7 technical support that Optimum offers all customers, the optional Service Protection plan covers any fees assessed for service visits. To align our rates, existing customers who currently pay $4.99/month will pay the same $6.99 fee currently applicable to new customers.

• Restoration Fee: Optimum customers who do not pay their bill within 30 days of the due date, despite multiple reminder notices, are currently subject to a $4.99 per service fee to restore their service. Effective June 1, the minimum service restoration fee will be $10.00 for single and double product customers and $15.00 for triple product customers.

• Installation Fee: Starting June 1, the prices paid by customers for standard and premium installations will increase from $69.00 to $99.00 and $99.00 to $129.00, respectively. Customers are being notified 30 days in advance for each of these changes through bill messages or inserts. In addition, rate information will be available on our website at www.optimum.net.

With Charter Communications’ launch of gigabit internet speeds in dozens of cities and Comcast pushing its own gigabit offering in the northeastern U.S., Verizon has intensified its promotions to capture new customers with the lure of a free Samsung Chromebook 3 or $200 credit towards Samsung technology products when buying a gigabit internet connection bundled with Custom TV + Phone for $79.99/month.

To qualify for the free Chromebook, you have to sign a two-year contract, but unlike some other promotions, the $79.99 price remains the same during both years. Exact details:

Fios Triple Play – 2-year agreement
Samsung: Offer avail. 4/19 – 7/25 via redemption codes for a Samsung Chromebook 3 11.6” (2GB RAM) or a one-time $200 credit toward a 2018 Samsung sound bar over $300, UHD TV 40” class or above, Gear 360 camera, IconX ear buds, Gear Fit 2 Pro, Galaxy Tab E (32 GB), or Galaxy Tab S3. Must maintain qualifying FiOS services in good standing for 65 days after install. Redeem codes within 90 days from date of issuance and by no later than 1/31/19. Credit and/or credit balance not transferable or redeemable or refundable for cash. Samsung is a registered trademark of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Verizon: Availability varies. Gigabit network connection to your home. Actual speeds vary due to device limits, network and other factors. Avg. speeds betw. 750-940 Mbps download / 750-880 upload. Limited time online offer for new TV and Internet residential customers subscribing to a Fios Triple Play bundle. Promo rates via bill credits and increase after promo period. Price guarantee applies to base monthly rate only. 2-yr. agr. req’d. Beg. mo. 2, up to $350 ETF applies. $12/mo. STB, $10/mo. router charge, $4.49/mo. Broadcast, up to $7.89/mo. Regional Sports Network and $0.99/mo. FDV Admin. fees apply. Other fees, taxes, & terms may apply. Auto Pay (ACH or bank debit card only) & paper-free billing req’d. Subj. to credit approval & may require a deposit.

We have verified this promotion is targeted to customers in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Richmond, Va., Hampton Roads, Va., Boston, Mass., Providence County, R.I., and the Washington, D.C. area. Not all locations will qualify.