According to a new book, Donald Trump and his aides tried to convince AT&T to sell CNN to Murdoch's Fox News in order to block the Time Warner merger.
The Independent obtained a pre-release copy of "The Divider" from Peter Baker and Susan Glasser.
According to the book, after winning the election, Trump summoned the chairman and CEO of AT&T to his office in Trump Tower.
According to the book, Trump called Zucker a "bad guy" and complained about CNN's boss at the time.
According to the Independent's report, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson left the meeting feeling that Trump posed a threat to the merger.
AT&T gave money to Trump's inaugural committee and paid Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer at the time, for his services. AT&T was in the process of acquiring Time Warner.
The decision to pay Cohen was a bad mistake.
Murdoch, the billionaire media mogul and founder of Fox News, called Stephenson in May of last year and asked how the deal was going.
Murdoch offered to buy CNN from AT&T in order to get the deal done, according to the report.
According to the book, he didn't want to sell CNN.
Murdoch offered to buy CNN again three months later. According to the Independent, it followed a White House dinner with the president, his son-in-law, and the former White House chief of staff.
The offer was once again turned down by Stephenson. According to an AT&T executive, the calls were part of an "outrageous abuse of power."
According to the book, AT&T viewed the calls as an implicit quid pro quo in which Trump would not push the government to block the merger if AT&T sold CNN to the owner of a competitor.
The book said that AT&T executives viewed the calls as extortion.
The AT&T acquisition was the subject of an antitrust lawsuit. The acquisition went ahead after Richard J. Leon ruled in favor of AT&T. The merger took place in June of last year.
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