House Democrats are reportedly poised to launch an investigation into President Trump’s actions relating to media companies.
House Democrats are reportedly poised to launch an investigation into President Trump's attacks on the media including CNN and the Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Representative Adam Schiff, who will become chair of the House Intelligence Committee once the Democrats assume control in January, revealed the plan to Axios during an interview on HBO.
He referred to the forthcoming probe as a way to determine if the president used "the instruments of state power to punish the press."
Schiff reportedly pointed to Trump's opposition to the proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner, CNN's parent company, saying: "We don't know, for example, whether the effort to hold up the merger of the parent of CNN was a concern over antitrust, or whether this was an effort merely to punish CNN."
In fact, others had suggested that the Justice Department's lawsuit to block the merger was at least somewhat politically motivated--a claim the agency has denied.
Axios says Schiff also claimed Trump had been trying to convince the postmaster general to charge Amazon more for postage, saying: "This appears to be an effort by the president to use the instruments of state power to punish Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post."
The online retailer has become a frequent target of the president, who tweeted in March: "I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election. Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!"
Trump has continued to make this argument despite experts arguing that Amazon is not alone in getting relatively fair pricing considering the amount of volume it generates.
