https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180511/08132539816/att-cans-exec-over-cohen-payment-kerfuffle-pretends-this-kind-influence-peddling-isnt-perfectly-routine.shtml

As you've probably seen, AT&T was recently exposed for paying $600,000 into a shady shell LLC operated by President Trump's "fixer" Michael Cohen. Initially, AT&T tried to claim that the company had simply hired Cohen for "insight" into President Trump. Granted, given AT&T could gain said insight into Trump from any number of its lawyers, lobbyists, above-board consultants (not to mention the ocean of politicians and regulators in its back pocket), the idea they'd pay an arguably dubious NYC "fixer" for such insight never really carried much weight.

It seems fairly obvious at this point that AT&T was probably paying Cohen for additional access to the President. A leaked document provided to the Washington Post makes it clear that AT&T hoped to gain some advantage in its business before the FCC (net neutrality, privacy, protectionism, protecting the status quo of limited competition), and its efforts to gain regulatory approval for the company's $86 billion Time Warner merger: