Justice Department disappointed by judges in AT&T-Time Warner hearing

Some members of President Trump’s Department of Justice privately expressed disappointment on Thursday following a three-judge hearing on its appeal of AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner, sources told The Post.

Specifically, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals judges on Thursday did not ask about 🌳AT&T’s actions since its deal with Tim𒁃e Warner closed in June, sources said.

The judges failed to raise the fact that AT&T in November blacked out its HBO service from Dish, raised prices for Dire♛cTV Now, and shut down site and production company Super Deluxe.

The DOJ believes each of those actions show🌺 AT&🌳T is already not living up to the pledges it made in US District Court to get its deal approved over the DOJ’s objections, a source with direct knowledge of the DOJ’s thinking said.

In addition, the Court of Appeals did not ask about how the parties felt about the Federal Communications Commission🎃 in August saying it believed Judge Richard Leon made a mistake when approving the AT&T merger.

The DOJ could not raise any of these points on its own since they were not made in its DC ꦯCircuit Court of Appeals fi🅘lings — unless the judges raised it first, sources said.

“The qu💯estion is if the judges were going to give them an opening,” the source said.

But the Court of Appeals, following the t🍰raditional route of only focusing on filed briefs, left the door shut.

This was the one and only hearing in the appeal, and the judges are expected to render a final judgment by F✨ebruary.

An AT&T spokeswoman said, “We apprecia😼te the🧸 court’s attention to the arguments of counsel and look forward to receiving its decision.”

AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner includes HBO, CN🤡N, TBS, TNT and the Cartoon Network.

“The Department of Justice appreciates the court’s careful consideration of this important case, and will await the court’s decision,” a DOJ spokesman told The Post.