Speaking of Brain Dead Antitrust Enforcement………

The DoJ is appealing the ruling on the AT&T-Time Warner merger, and they are using some fairly strong language to do this:

The Justice Department argued Monday that a trial judge ……… when he allowed AT&T Inc.’s acquisition of Time Warner Inc., as a host of new details about the antitrust trial became public for the first time.

The government’s arguments came in a brief filed in federal appeals court, where the Justice Department continues to challenge the more than $80 billion cash-and-stock deal—even after the companies completed the transaction in June upon winning a six-week trial.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon had ruled for the companies, saying the government didn’t come close to proving its claims that the deal would yield higher prices and less competition in the pay-TV industry. But the Justice Department called the decision erroneous in its brief filed Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The department said the judge ignored the fact that corporations will do what they can to maximize profits and instead accepted without reservation the testimony of defendants’ executives.

(Emphasis mine)

The judge seems a hot mess: he berated the DoJ for using lawyers that he saw as too young, and a sidebar included a discussion of donations for the unveiling of his official portrait.

A question to the lawyers out there, is sort of crap normal, or is Richard Leon entering Colonel Kurtz territory.