--- title: AT&T CEO Says Hiring Michael Cohen Was 'a Big Mistake' description: The telecom giant's CEO said that hiring Donald Trump's personal lawyer was "a big mistake." canonical: https://time.com/5274110/michael-cohen-att-big-mistake/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-11T14:23:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:15:07.865Z article:section: Politics og:title: AT&T CEO: Hiring Michael Cohen 'Was A Big Mistake' og:description: "Our Washington D.C. team's vetting process clearly failed." og:url: https://time.com/5274110/michael-cohen-att-big-mistake/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt819ec03ada9299de/69892dbd7cdbac6347d5c9a5/michael-cohen-lawyer-fbi-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Michael Cohen Trump Lawyer og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: AT&T CEO: Hiring Michael Cohen 'Was A Big Mistake' twitter:description: "Our Washington D.C. team's vetting process clearly failed." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt819ec03ada9299de/69892dbd7cdbac6347d5c9a5/michael-cohen-lawyer-fbi-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # AT&T CEO: Hiring Michael Cohen 'Was a Big Mistake'  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 11, 2018 2:23 PM UTC  Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, on Apr. 13, 2018 in New York City Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, on Apr. 13, 2018 in New York CityYana Paskova—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 11, 2018 2:23 PM UTC Three days after it was revealed that AT&T had paid Michael Cohen hundreds of thousands of dollars through his company [Essential Consultants](http://time.com/5272342/michael-cohen-essential-consultants-donald-trump/) LLC, the telecom giant’s CEO said that hiring Donald Trump’s personal lawyer was “a big mistake.” “Our company has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons these last few days and our reputation has been damaged,” CEO Randall Stephenson [said in a statement Friday](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/11/att-ceo-says-hiring-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-was-a-big-mistake-reuters.html). “There is no other way to say it – AT&T hiring Michael Cohen as a political consultant was a big mistake.” The statement continued: “To be clear, everything we did was done according to the law and entirely legitimate. 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.” **Read More:** [_Michael Cohen’s ‘Essential Consultants’ Business Is a Big Problem for Donald Trump_](http://time.com/5272342/michael-cohen-essential-consultants-donald-trump/) In Stephenson’s statement, he also revealed that Bob Quinn, who headed AT&T’s legislative affairs operation in Washington, would be retiring. AT&T’s apology came after drug maker Norvartis, which paid Cohen more than $1 million, also said its association with Cohen [was a mistake](http://fortune.com/2018/05/11/novartis-ceo-michael-cohen-mistake-trump/). On May 8, Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for adult-film star Stormy Daniels, tweeted that he had details of alleged wire transfers into the company controlled by Cohen. As TIME reported this week, “In the hours following the tweet, several of Cohen’s clients confirmed the payments, and it became clear that a new front had opened up in Trump’s legal and political battlefield. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5274110/michael-cohen-att-big-mistake/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5274110/michael-cohen-att-big-mistake/"},"headline":"AT&T CEO: Hiring Michael Cohen 'Was a Big Mistake'","datePublished":"2018-05-11T14:23:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:15:07.865Z","description":"The telecom giant's CEO said that hiring Donald Trump's personal lawyer was \"a big mistake.\"","url":"https://time.com/5274110/michael-cohen-att-big-mistake/","keywords":["Business","Campaign Finance","AT&T","Donald Trump","onetime","michael cohen"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt819ec03ada9299de/69892dbd7cdbac6347d5c9a5/michael-cohen-lawyer-fbi-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt819ec03ada9299de/69892dbd7cdbac6347d5c9a5/michael-cohen-lawyer-fbi-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Michael Cohen Trump Lawyer","caption":"Michael Cohen Trump Lawyer","creditText":"Yana Paskova—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5274110/michael-cohen-att-big-mistake/","name":"AT&T CEO: Hiring Michael Cohen 'Was a Big Mistake'"}}]}] ```