A red-faced Sen. Charles Schumer said Tuesday that when he praised Comcast’s pending takeover of Time Warner Cable, he had no idea his kid brother was the lead attorney on the deal — and removed himself from any congressional involvement in it.
The elder Schumer, 63, last week praised the acquisition as a “good deal for New York.” In his Feb. 13 statement, he said he had spoken to Comcast execs about the impact on jobs, the status of NY1 (owned by Time Warner), and about the company’s commitment to adding workers in Buffalo.
The next day, American Lawyer named Robert Schumer, 55, its “Dealmaker of the Week” for his work on the $45 billion acquisition.
Sen. Schumer’s office said Tuesday that until then, he was unaware his brother, co-chair of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison’s mergers-and-acquisitions practice, helped craft the deal.
“As Senator Schumer and his brother had never discussed the matter before, the piece in American Lawyer was the first Senator Schumer learned” of his brother’s role, said the pol’s spokesman, Max Young, who said he’ll now “recuse himself” from anything related.
American Lawyer noted in its story that “Robert Schumer’s relationship with Time Warner Cable dates back to before that company’s 2008 split from former parent Time Warner Inc. and the latter’s 1989 creation via the merger between Time Inc. and Warner Communications.”
Robert Schumer, who worked on both of those deals, was named an American Lawyer “Dealmaker of the Year” in 2006 for his representation of Time Warner in its $17.9 billion joint acquisition, with Comcast, of the assets of Adelphia Communications.
The blog littlesis.org reported on the Schumer brothers’ connection to the deal over the weekend.