This week just keeps getting worse and worse for those in the president’s orbit. The work week started out with the FBI raiding the president’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s office on Monday. The agency was on a hunt for, among other items, documents related to payouts to two women who allege affairs with Trump.
Now, an individual at a bit more of a distance away from the president than Michael Cohen has had one of his own offices raided. In the midst of a drawn out struggle over the future of British broadcaster Sky, The Daily Telegraph has revealed that European Commission investigators have raided the London offices of 21st Century Fox, which is seeking to take over Sky.
The British government has shown concern that Fox, led by Rupert Murdoch, taking control of Sky would leave the Fox head with too large of a sway over news sources in the United Kingdom.
This issue is not the one at the heart of the just reported raid from EC investigators, however.
Details aren’t immediately plentiful, but according to a report, authorities are looking into not just Fox but broadcast companies around the EU on account of “a suspected cartel in sports rights distribution and broadcasting.”
The identities of other companies included in the newly announced investigation aren’t immediately apparent; as for Fox, authorities are reportedly prepared to stay on site at their London offices into Wednesday and possibly Thursday. They are empowered, according to The Daily Telegraph, to seize copies of documents and computer records besides any “explanations from executives” that they’re able to obtain.
The raid comes at close to the last minute before the British government is set to make a decision as to whether or not to allow Fox to take over Sky; a recommendation is reportedly due from the country’s Competition and Markets Authority for Culture Secretary Matt Hancock by next month.
Fox did not comment beyond asserting that they are in full compliance with any investigative efforts, saying:
‘Fox Networks Group (FNG) is cooperating fully with the EC inspection.’
As for the European Commission, which governs the European Union, in a statement the body insisted that a raid did not necessarily mean that the scrutinized parties were actually guilty.
A spokesperson for the body said:
‘Unannounced inspections are a preliminary step into suspected anticompetitive practices. The fact that the Commission carries out such inspections does not mean that the companies are guilty of anti-competitive behaviour nor does it prejudge the outcome of the investigation itself.’
Over here in the U.S., the president remains a well-known big fan of Fox News, having it as one of his main allies in a political arena that’s increasingly closing in on him. He leaves the network out of his routine attacks on the media.
Although it’s not immediately clear whether he knows of the raid of Fox’s London offices, he has certainly made his displeasure with the Monday raid of his lawyer’s office known.
He called that raid an “attack on our country.”
Featured Image via Drew Angerer-Pool/Getty Images
