Judge Richard Leon, who presided over the lawsuit the DOJ had brought to block the deal, ruled last month that the government had failed to show that the deal violates antitrust law, and in his opinion ripped apart its case. AT&T has since closed the acquisition of Time Warner, including CNN.

AT&T has since re-named the division WarnerMedia, created as a separate unit from the rest of the company, in part in case of an appeal.

The Justice Department sued to stop the deal last year, saying that a distributor, AT&T, owning the likes of HBO, CNN and Warner Bros. would harm consumers by causing an increase in prices and would hurt innovation and competition. But after a six week trial, Leon said he didn’t buy that, and signed off on the deal with no conditions and knocked down the government’s contentions point by point.