FCC Officials Face Ethics Complaints Over Pricey Gifts From Paramount

Key Points:

• Two government watchdog groups, Democracy Defenders Fund and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), have called for investigations into whether FCC members violated ethics rules by accepting luxury gala tickets from Paramount amid its $111 billion merger bid with Warner Bros. Discovery.
• ProPublica revealed that several FCC commissioners, including Chair Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty, accepted expensive tickets to the Kennedy Center Honors gala sponsored by CBS/Paramount while the FCC reviewed major Paramount business deals.
• Ethics experts argue that accepting these gifts compromises FCC impartiality, urging that Carr and Trusty be disqualified from decisions on the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger and potentially repay the value of the gifts.
• The watchdog groups have filed complaints with the federal Office of Government Ethics, the FCC inspector general, and the FCC ethics office, demanding probes into possible violations of gift and gratuity laws and questioning the integrity of FCC merger approvals.
• The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger faces significant legal challenges from multiple states and organizations, with Paramount agreeing to pause the deal until ongoing litigation is resolved or until June 2027.