The Justice Department wants the transcripts from six-week-long antitrust trial on the AT&T and Time Warner merger to be made public.
The government filed a motion Wednesday in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to unseal the bench conference transcripts from the trial.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon allowed the merger of the two companies in June, and the Justice Department has since appealed that as well.
Leon ruled Friday that AT&T has until Friday to respond to the motion.
“Except for the legitimate need to preserve the confidentiality of certain testimony elicited at trial, no reason has been provided by either the defendants or the district court why the trial transcript should not now be public,” the Justice Department said in its filing.
“[T]hird parties considering participating in this appeal as amici curiae should have access to as much of the record as possible, as early as possible,” the government attorneys added.
The Justice Department estimates approximately 600 pages of the trial transcript remain under seal.
The federal government in its initial case argued that an AT&T-Time Warner merger would force competitors to raise costs, ultimately harming consumers. Some industry experts previously speculated that AT&T’s decision to move forward with price increases in the aftermath of Leon’s ruling could spur the DOJ to pursue an appeal.
[Also read: AT&T’s victory in Time Warner merger clears way for deal bonanza]
